Right Before My Eyes
by LusciousNesha
Summary: An elderly Sam Evans reflects upon the love of his life, Mercedes.
1. Right Before My Eyes

**Right Before My Eyes**

"Oh, look at that, Mercy! We've gotta get a picture of that one! We'll put it in the scrapbook," Sam Evans cheered, excitedly. As he aged, his control over his limbs was less than agreeable, so his dear wife had to help him steady the camera so that he could take a photo of two children, at the park.

The young boy, their great grandson, was giving the girl flowers and she was quite delighted to receive them from him. "He's getting to be just like his great granddaddy!" Sam said, as he excitedly snapped photos of the boy.

"I always knew that charm of yours would press on, forever," Mercedes said, with a wide grin as she released his camera and let it fall around his neck again.

"Grandpa, you need help snapping photos?" A golden woman with thick, long dreads asked him, concerned.

"Of course not. Between the two of us, we've got it," he said. The woman sighed and collected her grandfather on the opposite side of Mercy, careful not to disturb their contact, and she led him to a bench. "You know, your kid's just like me. He's wooing that girl with a handful of flowers that he picked from the other side of the tree that they're standing under. I did that, too. I never even told him. Just came natural to him." Sam smiled at the children with twinkling green eyes as he recalled another time. "Remember that, Mercy?" He asked his wife as she sat down.

"Of course, I do. My memory is better than yours," she said.

He chuckled and shut his eyes softly to see it more clearly.

_Mercedes wore a purple sundress and had her hair scooped over to one side for some photos. She had begun doing demos and with each homemade CD that she and Sam pushed out for her, she did another photo shoot. Soon, she would be changing her clothes again in the trailer and having more photos taken. Sam rushed onto the scene, on his bike, worried about the fact that his appointment had run late and he might have missed his girlfriend being all adorable and sensual at the same time. But, when he got there, she was just wrapping up her poses in the purple dress, under a tree that she and Sam claimed as theirs, despite the fcat that it was in a public park._

_ They frequently had picnics and lunch dates there and Mercedes had used it twice for photo shots. Sam parked his bike by the trailer and rushed to the opposite side of the tree, putting a finger over his lips, so the camera man would not blow his cover. Then, he glanced around, picked some flowers, tapped her on one shoulder, then moved around the tree to the other side to give her the flowers. Mercedes gasped, like these handpicked wildflowers were the best gift that she had ever received and smiled brightly as she hugged and kissed him hello._

"_Those shots were perfect!" Wade, her official cameraman cheered. "You'll have to use the reaction shot for a cover. My suggestion – Things You Do For Love." _

Presently, Sam smiled and opened his eyes to see the beautiful, petite, and wrinkled brown skinned prize with silver hair flowing past her shoulders in soft curls smiling at him with a crinkly nose, from behind a fashionable pair of purple glasses. She reached over to tuck his snow-white hair behind his ears and leaned forward to nuzzle his nose. The two of them held hands and watched their great-grandson affectionately sing to the lucky young lady that had gotten his attention. "He's singing one of Meemaw's old songs," their granddaughter said. "I listen to her music all the time at the house."

Sam barely heard a word his granddaughter said. He was at an age where he sometimes drifted off and had developed a condition where he sometimes went to sleep. He felt around for Mercy's wrinkled little hand and squeezed it tightly as he drifted into sleep…

_Mercedes and Kurt met up before the graduation to make sure that they were seated next to each other. It had taken them great lengths to be sure to be present for the graduation of Sam Evans and Blaine Anderson, their respective boyfriends. Kurt said, "I know that the distance has been killing me, and Blaine visits New York all of the time. How are things between you and Sam?"_

"_Sam is hardly the type to let something like distance deter him from loving somebody. He sends me love letters, in the mail, also daily texts, tweets, posts on my facebook wall, and he's dedicated a tumblr blog to us. We talk every night and Skype on the weekends," Mercedes said._

"_And, after this graduation?" Kurt asked. "I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but he still wants the two of you to be together, right?"_

"_We're still in love. Real life just sometimes gets in the way, and as you know – not everyone has the opportunities that you and Rachel do. My dad flipped when I decided to move to California and insisted that I go to college for a real degree, otherwise, he would cut me off. So, I have to try to promote myself in between classes and exams, if I want to be able to afford my rent, because I can only work part time, if I want to try to make a name for myself in the industry."_

_Kurt looked dismayed as he touched his chest, "I thought you loved California!"_

"_I do love California!" She said. "I'm not complaining. Just stating the facts. It's just as hard to make my dream a reality as I thought it would be and even harder to deal with how my dad treats it."_

_ Sam searched the crowd from behind the curtain, excitedly. It had been months since he saw his girl face to face and he just needed to see her, just once. Just knowing that she was here made his heart jump out of his chest. In fact, he doodled a sketch of himself, seeing her and his heart exploding from his chest, like in the old cartoons. He would show it to her later and he anticipated the laugh that it would draw out of her. "I don't see them," he complained to Blaine._

"_Did they wait for Mike?" Tina Cohen-Chang asked, Blaine, over her shoulder, as she leaned on Sam's shoulder._

_Blaine looked at his response text and answered his friends, "To Sam, they are in the A section. To Tina, no, they didn't, but Mercedes says that Mike and Santana found each other and are going to sit together."_

"_Sit together where?" Tina asked, testily. She was set to perform a song with the two males, as well as be the valedictorian. The least that she should be able to do was to look into the crowd and see her beloved smiling proudly._

_Blaine sighed and began sending another text. He could hardly wait until this graduation was over so that he could stop being the one to appease everybody else. He was excited to see Kurt at his graduation, but he could barely enjoy it for the fact that his friends had been separated from their loves more frequently and regularly than he had. Finally he answered, "They are in the P section with Brittany's family." Tina's eyes darted to the place and she was glad to see her handsome dancer, seated with their old friend from Glee. Relieved, she got off of Sam's back and went to call Mike to tell him that she saw him._

_ Pissed off that he still didn't see Mercedes, Sam pulled out his own phone and called her, "My eyes are diligently scanning A section, but they have yet to behold my sunshine. Wave at the stage." Mercedes laughed and made a confused face._

"_Is that one of those 'work from home' programs? I don't know how they get people's numbers. Just hang up," he suggested, seriously. She laughed even harder._

"_It's Sam. He wants me to wave at the stage," she said._

_Sam told her, "Or stand up, or you and Kurt do something to let me know that you're really here ."_

"_You wave first," she said._

_Sam pushed the curtain out of the way, revealing himself, awkwardly to the entire group waiting for the ceremony to begin and waved into the crowd. He heard Mercedes laugh and Kurt yelp, over the phone, then he saw it. A small hand waving at him, attached to the arm of the most beautiful person that he knew. _

_ Coach Roz quickly moved him behind the curtain and Mercedes could hear the woman tearing into her poor baby about doing drugs before this special night. He apologized, heard out her tangent of expressions, and when she left him, he got back onto the phone, "It's so good to see you, Mercy."_

Sam's granddaughter, Samara, who they called "Sammie," smiled when she saw her cousin approaching. Kelsey, Stacey's granddaughter and she were close. The entire family was very loving and loved to try to keep in touch and get together, but of their particular generation, Sammie and Kelsey were the two that kept the most regular contact. "How's Uncle Sam? Is he asleep?" The model thin blond woman asked as she hugged the light brown woman with the long, black dreads.

They went to sit next to him, but Sammie stopped Kelsey. "Don't sit there. He thinks Grandma's there," she said, sadly. "He talks to her, fully. He even reaches out for her hand. He gets so frustrated with me when I don't hug her or kiss her. He thinks that I blame her for him hitting his head a while back."

"Auntie Mercedes has only been gone for like half a year. I can't imagine that it's been easy for him to deal with that after being together for so long."

"I know. That's why I don't correct him. But, what if he realizes? What if he finds out that for the past few weeks, he's been living in his own imagination?" Sammie asked.

"The way he looked when she wouldn't wake up that morning. Kel… I never wanna see my grandpa like that again. He has been happy this entire month. He even took photos of Avery today." She smiled sadly, through damp green eyes, "He thinks that she helped him to steady the camera."

"Bless him," Kelsey whispered and looked at her great uncle. "Well, we can't tell him, Samara. If he does realize, we can deal with it, then. But in the meantime – he's about to be eighty, and as much as it's gonna hurt us, Uncle Sam probably won't be with us much longer. Let's let him enjoy it as much as he can." He began to stir and opened his eyes to see the two ladies. His granddaughter sat next to him and his… niece? Niece. She sat across from him.

"Well, well. Look at that!" He cheered.

She got up and reached over the bench to hug him, "Hey Unc!" Then, she quickly reached next to him and said, "And Auntie!"

"What are you trying to do, smother her?" Sam asked, his eyes lighting up, simply at the fcat that finally, after that unfortunate accident a few weeks ago; finally someone in the family was acknowledging his lovely wife!


	2. The Lucky Chair

2. **The Lucky Chair**

Sammie entered Sam's room and saw that he'd fallen asleep on his favorite chair – some "ergonomic" thing from ages ago, that she'd tried to replace many times, but he refused, insisting that it was his lucky chair. She hated when he went to sleep on it, because whether or not he would admit it, she believed that he woke up feeling uncomfortable. "I'm 79, of course I feel uncomfortable when I wake up. This chair is better than that bed!" He would complain. Something made her think that he probably realized that the bed was a lonely place, without her.

For a time, she sat next to his chair and stroked it with her fingers. It was actually in ridiculously good shape. But, Mercedes had regularly had it reupholstered, since Sam refused to let go of it.

_ Sam unlocked the door to the apartment and Mercedes was in a pair of jeans, an old local band t-shirt and had a purple scarf tied around her head. "Don't be mad, okay?" were the first words out of her mouth. He frowned and sighed. What now? He'd had an exceptionally terrible day, with failing to get a job, dropping his portfolio into a puddle and almost hitting a dog with his truck. "I noticed how uncomfortable you look in my little desk when you're trying to work on your comics. Then, you just fight to try to get comfy on the floor… So I sort of went into my savings and got you this chair." She held both of her hands out to present it._

_ He smiled softly at her, but she could tell that he had a problem with it. "Mercedes, I don't want you going into the money that's supposed to be for your music career to get me a chair." _

"_I knew that you wouldn't like that. That's why I did it in secret, had it delivered while you were out job hunting and put the order and warranty in your name. If you really don't want it, you can send it back," she said with a shrug. Her brown eyes dropped sadly and he placed his bag down to move to hold her._

"_Mercedes, Baby – I appreciate your gift. I appreciate **you. **I just feel bad that I've been living with you now for weeks and I still haven't been able to contribute," he said. "Of course, I'll keep the chair that you went through so much trouble to get me, just out of the goodness of your heart." He lifted her chin to kiss her._

_ Immediately, Mercedes cheerily grabbed his hand and led him to the chair, "The ad says that the way it's made, you can literally lay or sit on it in any position and still have comfort. Try it out. See what you think." She gave him a little shove to sit him down on the oddly shaped cushioned chair. From the moment he touched it, she could see that he loved it._

"_Mercedes-" Her eyes lit up at the expression on his face as he moved himself around to position himself. "Baby, thank you." She nodded and gave him a hug. He pulled her onto his lap and asked, "Have you sat in this thing?"_

"_No! I bought it for you. Well, I sat on one in the store that I order it from, but not this particular one. But, let me up. I didn't get a chance to finish cooking before you got back." She said and tried to move._

"_Please… I've had a really bad day. Could you just… stay here for a moment?" He squeezed her tightly and she stared at him._

_Mercedes cupped her boyfriend's face and he looked up at her. "What's wrong?"_

"_Do you realize that by the time I was eighteen, I was taking care of a family of five by myself, and now, I can't even buy the woman I love dinner… meanwhile, she's getting me a comic book chair." He hardly got the words out of his mouth before she leaned in to kiss him and silence his worries. "Mercedes…"_

"_Sam." She said and lifted an eyebrow at him. "My parents pay for all of my living expenses, as long as I'm in school. Yes, I've been saving up for my music career and I went into that money to get you something nice. But, I wouldn't even be here without you. You aren't inconveniencing me in any way and I would rather help you until you can find some real work, than for you to be out there shaking your stuff around, like you were when you were eighteen." She slipped her hands up his shirt to stroke the ripples of his muscles and whispered, "I want all of this all to myself."_

_He smiled, proudly at her declaration and told her, "I'm all yours. I just… I **was **good at that and it paid well. I would do even better, out here. I would be able to take care of you and you wouldn't have to pretend to want this degree to please your parents just to have a place to live while you follow your dreams."_

"_I want my degree, and it's better to have my parents helping me than to have to share you with a bunch of horny cougars. You'll find work. I believe in you just as much as you believe in me. All we need is each other and our lives will be what we want them to be. Have faith." She kissed him again and withdrew her hands from his abs and kissed him on the lips, gently, before getting up to finish dinner. But Sam had already decided that this simply would not do. He didn't know what he had to do, but he realized that whatever it was, he had to do it quickly, if he was going to feel even the least bit worthy of her._

Sam stirred as his granddaughter attempted to get him off of his chair, "What in God's name are you doing, Girl?" He fussed in a whisper and jerked away from her, "I was having a good dream about this chair!"

"You need to get into bed," she said, softly, still trying to lift him.

"Cut it out," he whispered, "You'll wake your meemaw, and you know how she gets when you disturb her beauty rest. We sleep like this all of the time." He stroked at Mercedes' velvety frosty curls and kissed her forehead, grateful that Sammie had _not _disturbed her rest. But, just to be careful, began to sing a song to her. She sighed and curled herself into his neck. "See there - as peaceful as an angel." He frowned at Sammie, then shut his eyes to return to sleep.

_Mercedes watched Sam many nights, fall to sleep, mid-work on his chair. It was his work chair, reading chair, videogame chair, and their sex chair. She was sure that she saw him more on that chair than anywhere else in the apartment, combined. She came in to see him strumming on his guitar, then writing. 'Oh God. What kind of brainstorming does he have going on?' she wondered._

"_I'm home!" She called out._ _Perhaps he did not hear her, because he didn't even stir. Instead, he scribbled on his paper, then went to typing on his laptop. She walked into the room and cleared her throat, "I'm home," she repeated, enunciating the statement._

_Now, Sam looked up at her and his entire face lit up. "Mercy!" He cheered, then pushed everything off of his lap and onto the chair to get up and snatch her into a hug. She laughed and hugged him back, but stared curiously at him. It wasn't that he wasn't generally happy to see her, but usually – he wasn't so engulfed in something. Plus, when he usually hugged her hello, it was not as though he had not seen her in months. "I missed you today," he said._

"_I was gone the same amount of time as I usually am," she said. "What are you working on?"_

"_A theme song," he said, waving a hand at his stuff. "Something amazing happened today."_

"_I figured something was up. What is it?" She asked, excitedly. "Work?" He smiled and nodded his head eagerly. "Where?"_

"_I'm going to be playing guitar at one of the hottest new clubs in town. They have a live band, but the singer keeps running the members off, so now – they don't even try to get popular artists anymore. Anyone is welcome to try out, so I did and I was hired."_

"_That's great!" She said, excitedly. "I'm glad that you found something. I know how important it is for you to be able to work for pay." She hugged him again and asked, "Where is this place?"_

"_Vanity 9," he said. Her face changed when he mentioned it. "What?" He asked._

"_That's the club where the women dance in cages and they have those oil wrestling matches and stuff like that," she said. Not a question._

"_I don't know much about the club, really," he admitted, with a suddenly concerned expression. He was concerned because she looked concerned. "But, even if it is, the pay is fantastic. I get paid nightly and they give referrals to other clubs that the owner owns, if they're out of a musician. I could get two or three payments a night, depending on how many gigs I can pick up, and all I have to do is learn the songs and play them. I can do that in my sleep."_

"_I'm happy for you," she said, and she meant it. "It looks like this good news has your creative juices flowing. Tell me about what's going on in the chair. You're writing a theme song?"_

_ Sam laughed, took her by the hand and brought her to the chair, "You know that I finished my first graphic novel, and that I'm adapting it into a script, but I had this idea… I think that I'll make an independent movie."_

_Her face brightened up and she said, "Sam, you would be great at that! Your ideas are totally movie-worthy and Zaydyn's story needs to remain the way you created it to be. I worry that if you hand your script over to someone, they'll butcher all your hard work. I've seen you slave too long, struggling past everything to create this story." _Everything. _She meant his dyslexia. There were times that he came to her and begged her to read over his final drafts of things because after working so hard and long, his eyes simply could not un-jumble the letters anymore, and even though his laptop has spell check, sometimes, it put the wrong words in place (though they were spelled correctly._

_ It never bothered Mercedes one bit. In fact, after she began reading his graphic novel and helping to revise his script, she became interested in a slew of comics and movies that she had never really been interested in before. She had seen Avatar a few times, but she hadn't been that excited about it, even though it always made her smile when Sam spoke N'avi. His work opened her eyes and her heart into genres and fandoms that she'd previously written off, and she began to love and look forward to new comics just as much as he did. _

_ When she re-watched comic book movies, after being introduced to the real thing, she became disappointed with the adaptations, and their rants about it could last all night, sometimes. Now, he was going to be trying to push his own world out there. Zaydyn, an alien sent to infiltrate Earth as a sleeper cell, to be activated at a certain age, but was found and reprogrammed by Earth's scientists as an infant who grew up to hate aliens and became one of the best weapons against them before discovering the truth – that his parents had been agents who fought against his true people and he was a tool, for both side of a war… Mercedes LOVED that character, "As if he was my own child," she would say. _

_ In fact, had she not been as supportive of Sam's creation, he was unsure as to whether or not he would have tried so hard to continue it. He began talking about his project as he picked his guitar back up, "So, while you're in school all day three times a week, I'll be diligently working on what I'm calling Project Zaydyn… the script, plans for future graphic novels, maybe even novels, if I can find the time to sort through all that text only madness that comes with writing one… I'm even considering trying to make a cartoon short on my laptop and posting them online."_

"_Before you do that, I think you should look into copywriting," she said and sat next to him on the chair, gathering up his laptop and handing him his notepad._

"_That's a good idea." He scribbled that in the corner of his notes. "That'll be one of the first things that I'll pay for, then I'll try to get a decent camera. I'd like to film Zaydyn's experiences like a documentary, before the revelation of who he is and the struggle that comes along with that." Mercedes just smiled softly at him with tired eyes. He didn't even seem to notice how exhausted she was. But, she knew that when he was focused on something, sometimes, he simply got wrapped up in it. "Baby, do you need me to fix you a plate? I knew you'd be tired, so I cooked earlier, so that I could jump right into this." He looked at her, then placed his guitar aside. "Oh, you look like you're going to pass out. Let me warm you a plate and draw you a bath." _

_ Quickly, Sam leaped up and went to do just what he set out to do. He had no idea how much she loved him right now for not only noticing her condition, but moving to do something about it. She smiled to herself, and laid down to look at his progress on his project. By the time he returned to the room, she was asleep in his spot. Sam returned the plate to the kitchen and waited a while to see if she might wake up in time to still enjoy her bath. When she stayed sleep, he let the water out of the tub and sat on the floor next to her, working only on his sketch pad, careful not to wake her. _My poor baby needs all the rest that she can get.


	3. The Spa Day Cover

_So... I have two chapters tonight, but it might be a week or so before I post anymore, so hope that they are enjoyable. :)_

**3. The Spa Day Cover**

As much as Sammie hated lying, she was relieved when Kelsey told Sam that she was taking Mercedes to a day spa for the entire day. It made things easier for her to manage with him, if he thought that Mercedes was elsewhere. Fortunately, Mercedes was still a diva, even in ghost form? Imaginary friend form? Sammie shook her head and shrugged, whatever she was to him… memory form. There were so many things that people wanted her grandfather to be a part of, but she didn't think that he was up to any of it.

One of the networks was going to be airing the life story of The Diva and The Dork later on this week and she would have to be sure to be present so that he would not see any of it, with people's commentaries of who Mercedes was and how her death affected the world. He seemed to sleepwalk through the entire funeral process and spent several months not eating properly or even caring about himself, until it happened.

Sam had been laying in the tub, sick, dying of starvation, dehydrated. He had made all of the children leave, but his granddaughter Sammie refused to go and even when he shoved her out of the front door and locked it, she remained standing outside, making calls. She called everyone from both of her grandparents' staff to see who else had a key to the house. Her grandfather had been neglecting medication and nourishment, and she was convinced that the man was trying to kill himself.

None of them witnessed what happened in that bathroom. As Sam laid in the tub, crying for a countless time over his wife's departure, he could not motivate himself to leave the water. _He was supposed to go first. He was the sick one, always battling this or that. He was the one in and out of the hospital, the one that had to take medicines and all other such trouble that she helped him to organize and remember. "It should have been me, Mercy! But, I won't tarry too long. You'll see me soon enough," he promised, through sobs._

"Sam Evans, you stop that, right now," he heard her say. He looked up to see his diva, his princess, his angel – dressed in a white robe, extending her hands to him. "Let me help you," she said, sweetly. Sam was so excited to see her that he moved too quickly trying to get out of the tub and when he reached for her hands, his fingers slipped from hers and he fell out of the bathtub and hit his head.

Sammie immediately panicked. She'd heard something thud and maybe even a yelp. She broke open one of the windows and rushed throughout the vast place, calling out to her grandfather, and calling 911, explaining that she had broken in because she heard a thud, but she was unable to locate the man inside. When she found him, her heart sank. She reported to the operator, "Oh my God. He's laying on his face and his head is bleeding. Oh my God, Grandpa!" She began crying profusely.

Since then, when Sam spoke of Mercedes, they presumed that the bump he took to the head combined with his stress present manifested his imaginary Mercedes. Though they appreciated the fact that he _really _survived miraculously that fall, they felt that this was a way of letting him live again. He told Sammie that Mercedes was dressed in white, trying to help him out of the tub, but he slipped from her grasp. At first, she thought that maybe he was trying to tell her that his wife had come to usher him into Heaven, but when he continued to talk to Mercedes, after the fact – she gradually began to realize that he had repressed her death and everything else up until his fall.

Their pretenses seemed to hurt everyone but him, so that was what was important. Sammie, being the only granddaughter in the family that actually _lived _in Tennessee and didn't just come to visit, came to the house on a regular basis. She was the one Sam called when he couldn't get Mercedes to respond the morning that she died and she was the one who also found him, thinking that he too was dead. The stress of it all bothered her more than anyone else in the family and sometimes, she thought that they purposefully did not want to know everything that was happening. She understood that to a certain extent.

Sam and Mercedes were wonderful people who had loved each other and taught their children, grandchildren and a few great grandchildren what true love really looks like and encouraged them to accept nothing less. They impacted entertainment and impacted society. They were a unit, as powerful as any force of nature… and now they were apart. That reality was harsh and painful… but how did they think it felt to see him revert to a place that no longer existed and to try not to agitate him with her inability to do so with a genuine smile?

Sam's entire face beamed when Kelsey returned and he staggered over, with his crooked back and reached out for his prize. "Oh, Mercy – you look beautiful!" Kelsey smiled and nodded her head, enthusiastically. Sammie just began to gather up her things to leave. Sam admired Mercedes with a nice curly do that she hadn't sported in decades, which made him think of the first Troubletones performance he had ever seen, despite the fact that all of her hair was now brilliant silver. She had on a yellow dress and her skin was radiant and so soft and clear. "You ladies should go to the spa more often," Sam suggested.

"Funny you should mention that, Uncle Sam. Auntie Cedes and I are going to make a regular habit of this thing. I'm thinking once a week. Is every Friday good for you, Auntie?" She asked. Sammie huffed, inaudibly as Sam and Mercedes began to fuss. He didn't want her to spend every Friday away from him! Sam watched as Kelsey put her hand up over her mouth, as though to shield it from her great uncle as she said, "Auntie Cedes, I'll be here to pick you up next Friday morning." Her blue eyes fell upon Sammie, who passed by her nose nuzzling grandparents, wishing them a good night as she moved towards the door.

"Sammie, wait up!" Kelsey called and followed her cousin out of the house. "What's wrong?"

Tears instantly fell from her eyes and she asked, "Do you even take what's going on to him seriously? How can you so happily deceive him like that?"

Kelsey swallowed hard and tilted her head slightly as she said, "Because I know it's what he needs. You're actually leaving him for the night?"

"He had a long talk with me about my attitude towards Meemaw, told me that if I couldn't start being nicer to her, then I would have to stop coming over and that when she got back from the "beautifier" that he would want to spend some alone time with her tonight and would appreciate it if I just left when she got in." She wiped her face and said, "Dad wants me to start interviewing home health workers. They just don't understand this feeling of responsibility that I have for him. I watched him say his goodbyes to her once I confirmed that she was dead. I… I have been here for him the entire process."

"You did everything that you could and you've done well. Seriously, my siblings, my aunts and uncles never go see Nana Stacey in that home. I go to see her, and when I do, she's the happiest thing alive for the first few moments and a depressed wreck for the next two hours, wondering why nobody else comes to see her. It hurts me. That's why I try to make sure I bring Uncle Sam at least once a month. I see Nana once and week, bring Uncle Sam once a month and until now, see Uncle Sam bi-weekly, and thatexhausts _me. You _are with Uncle Sam everyday for at least eight hours. You need a break and right now, he's fine enough for you to take one."

Sammie was about to debate, but Kelsey pointed out, "Uncle Sam was grieving when he fell."

"And hallucinating – which he is still doing, and even more now. He's going to have imaginary old people sex with his late wife tonight."

"I doubt it. They'll probably kiss, cuddle and fall to sleep before second base," Kelsey said.

"Kelsey!" Sammie said.

"Sounded sarcastic and facetious, but I swear I was being serious," Kelsey replied. She waved her hand before getting distracted again, "He's totally happy with his life and will most likely not have another event like that. He has guard rails in the tub and he can hear just fine. You can call him to remind him about any medicine he needs to take and still stop by for daily visit, just… not watching him like an overprotective hawk all day long and into the night." Kelsey shrugged her shoulders and said, "And while you're trying it that way, also look into getting a home health worker."

"You coming over for dinner?" Sammie asked. Kelsey knew that to mean that she still needed her cousin around and locked her arm into the woman's. "Can we take your car? I'll leave mine here since I'll be back in the morning, anyway." Her husband could drop her off.

"It's Zaydyn's 60th birthday soon… well – 60 years since his release to the world, anyway," Sam said as he and Mercedes both finished preparing for bed. "Hard to believe that it's been that long. We've had him longer than the kids…"

_ Mercedes hated not being able to see her family for Thanksgiving, but if she went to Lima, she would miss the independent film festival that was going to release Sam's movie, Zaydyn is My Name. Her man had worked hard for the past couple of years on this movie. He did the bulk of the work and enlisted friends for much of the remainder of it. Sam had been paid very well with his music and offered various other jobs, though in his spare time, he was consumed with the development of his fictional character, the alternate Earth and the war with the Xetygeron race. His online cartoon shorts had gone viral and he was offered contracts for making a motion cartoon, which he was able to talk up to a contract of the release of the graphic novel, first – then a cartoon. He always put most of it into Mercedes' album savings and worked with as little as possible for the rest of his stuff._

_ Sam excelled with the graphic novel and the cartoon so well that by the time his fan base heard that he had been making a movie, they had already dedicated blogs and websites to the Zaydyn Project. Mercedes convinced him to have an official website made, just so the proper facts could be released, officially. After a while, he became quite popular and soon famous. By the time he was twenty and unleashing the work that was his independent film, he took a good long look at his woman and felt a little guilty that they were here for her to shine, but she somehow ended up on that comfortable but forgettable backburner._

_ Yes, she was still making her CDs and Sam was promoting them left and right. She had enough in her savings to come out with a proper album, but she wanted to make sure she remained supportive of Sam and the things that he was doing, simultaneously. A kid named Wade, that idolized her back in Ohio had come into town to become famous as well and served as the president of her fan club, her personal assistant, her photographer, her choreographer, her publicist… he really did everything that Sam tried to do, but kept running out of time. However, when Sam made the theme song, Mercedes and Wade sang it together and she was featured on several of the score's tracks. _

_And even though the main female lead's character was created in her image, she appeared in a scene in the movie where the two have a long talk about Zaydyn's secret, as the sultry singer on the stage at the bar that they're gathered at. After he proves his alien identity, his friend/love interest grows silent and they stare at each other for a time, during which Mercedes rips a song to shreds while her character silently cries before getting up and leaving, not knowing what else to do._

_The song MADE that scene and everyone was a buzz with trying to figure out who in the world this singer was and why had they not heard her before? Within weeks, Mercedes was being signed to a major record label. "All thanks to you," she told Sam as they set her framed copy of her contract next to his on their mantle._

"_You kidding? I never would've even gotten my work off of the ground if it wasn't for your encouragement. So, really this is thanks to you, Baby." He pulled her in with one arm and hugged her to his side as they looked at their accomplishments that they both only felt confident would grow._

"_This is what happens when people love each other, believe in each other and help each other," she said and wrapped an arm around him as well. Sam looked over and kissed the top of her head. She looked up into his eyes and they stared at each other for a moment._

"_You're amazing," Sam told her. She couldn't help but to smile brightly at that declaration, but before she could reply, his lips tackled hers and he began to urge her towards the bedroom. She laughed into his mouth and let him move her exactly where he wanted her._

"We need to celebrate it. I know that they'll probably have all these dedication magazines and stuff, but I'm thinking like as a family," Mercedes suggested. "I mean, if it wasn't for your comics, people might not have picked up on the movie (because it was rather low budget, after all), and if they hadn't picked up on the movie, I never would've gotten noticed."

"Yes, you would've. You even had enough money for enough studio time to make your album. You were gonna succeed, no matter what. God just knew how much I wanted to support and impress you, so He let your talent be introduced through my work (so it could look like I was somehow responsible)." He clipped her nose with his middle and index finger and she laughed and scrunched her face up.

"Sam!" She said and playfully slapped at his arm. Then, she suddenly became serious and she said, "Really, we should have a celebration for Zaydyn's 60th birthday. I love him like my own child." She wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled her close.

"It's next up on our list of events."

"Our list of things to do together," she corrected him.

He scoffed, laughed and muttered, "Know it all." Then, he poked her nose with his index finger and said, "Boop." She scrunched her face up with a laugh.

"Sam Evans, you are so silly," she said and pulled him closer to hold him.


	4. Her Name in Lights

_Sorry that I have OC's in the story. With the plotline, I couldn't make it work without some characters that aren't actually in Glee, and when I make a character, I try to make sure their developed. Excuse the developments for me, please?_

**4. Her Name in Lights**

Sam and Mercedes' oldest son, Marvel, picked his father (and mother) up for lunch every Thursday that he was in town. When he went on trips and such, he generally tried to make it his business to be in Tennessee by Thursday. If he missed lunch, he took them to dinner, and if he missed Thursday, he did it the day he did return. Fortunately, it was Thursday.

Marvel looked more like Sam than he did his mother, though his skin was dark enough that people assumed he was biracial or something other than white, at least. He had thick, dark brown hair that he wore in a ponytail, neatly tended facial hair, broad shoulders and green eyes. Growing up in LA, and on the road, with his mother touring and his father in Hollywood, he loved the limelight and both the movie and music industries… but somehow ended up modeling. It took years for him to become an actor, outside of his father's projects; then he became an entertainment talk show personality.

But, being the son of Sam and Mercedes Evans, he probably could have done just about anything that he wanted to do with his life. His main goal, presently was to make cure that his father was looked after. Samara was Marvel's only daughter, but he also had two younger sons who did not spend nearly as much time with their grandparents as he would have liked. Samara practically lived with them and called her daddy crying nearly every day of how sad it was seeing her grandpa live without his Mercy.

Marvel and his wife, Delanna Cross (Evans), a former model turned model agency owner met during one of Sam and Mercedes' philanthropic crusades. The Evans were the type of power couple who not only rose to fame from next to nothing, but used their fame and resources to give back. While Marvel did not so much follow the religious faith of his parents, he was still a charitable person. He volunteered to help with relief efforts for a natural disaster – something that he remembered his parents doing each time a natural disaster struck somewhere during his childhood, and Delanna was there – one of the brightest new models in the industry, at the time and coincidentally a major fan of Mercedes.

The two hit it off, dated for years, had two sons and one daughter and got married, in that order. Now, they still did charity work, but the most important giving that they had was their time to Marvel's father. The statuesque woman with shiny, dark skin hugged her father in law tightly, upon sight. "Oh, Papa Sam!" She cheered and squeezed him.

"And, Mama Cedes," she said, glancing slightly at each side of him, trying to figure out where she might be in his mind. Very much like her daughter, she simply smiled politely and didn't embarrass herself by reaching out and possibly grabbing an imaginary breast, or something. "You beautiful folks ready for some fine dining?"

Marvel shut his eyes a brief moment to try to remember his mother's stature and reached out to hoist her up and spin her around. He felt badly for "entertaining this" as he called it, but Delanna reminded him that he had been very creative and kind about Santa when their children were small and told him it was virtually the same thing. Marvel did not feel that way about this. Santa was easy. He was pretend. This was his _mother _ they were pretending to have alive.

The very woman who gave him life and "raised him right," even though he was being raised in a very fast and mean environment, and continued to love and cherish not only his father but each of her five children, just like a regular woman (despite the fact that she was a huge star). Losing her was his worst day ever. Trying to pretend that she was still alive was the second worst feeling that he had ever known.

Mercedes looked over the menu and said, "You know what, I think that I'll just share whatever you're having with you."

Sam chuckled and said, "You never eat your own food anymore. You trying to get skinny on me? You're already smaller than you've ever been." The waitress looked to the empty seat that Sam was joyously talking to, then at the handsome couple with a sympathetic but ashamed face. She felt bad that she, an outsider had to see such a thing and knew that they were probably little bashful about this.

"Can I take your orders?" She asked, looking down at her pad and refusing to make eye contact with any of the people again.

"Order for your wife, Papa Sam. She's been so soft-spoken these days," Delanna encouraged. That generally helped for them not to be accused of ignoring her. As Sam went over the menu with his wife, Delanna whispered to the waitress, "He has dementia and sees his late wife. Please just participate. Our usual waitress does."

"Mercy, did you see the chicken pasta? That sounds good. No, no… that's fried. You can't have that. The doctor took you off of fried stuff. I should know. It was me who had the pleasure of being the only person in the house with you when you were going through tots withdrawals. Mercy. Be serious. That's for kids…" He paused and stared up at the empty spot, incredulously. "Now, now, Mercy. I know they can't hear your sweet little voice, but you shouldn't tease me like that, especially not at the dinner table, and with the kids, at that." He reddened a little and snickered, "I DID used to do it to you all the time," he laughed.

"Dad… you two gonna order?" Marvel asked, having a hard time with the scene in front of him. Sam soon ordered a meal for himself and a kiddie plate for Mercedes. "Is there a jukebox in here?" Sam asked.

"Yes, Dad," Marvel answered. Sam asked that every time they came into this particular place. You wanna hear something?" He asked back, automatically giving Sam some change.

Sam grabbed the handful, reached out to his wife, then led her to the machine. The moment that he was out of sight, Marvel dropped his head into his arms and took a few deep breaths. His wife gently and playfully tugged his long ponytail to get his attention, so that she could offer him a needed smile. He took her little hand in his and kissed it, grateful for a woman who reminded him of his mother. He whispered to her, "I don't know how to lie to him. What if he sees through it? I still remember the last time he realized that she was gone…"

"This is one of the good days for him. You know that when she's around, he has energy and he has fun. His face is bright and his eyes light up. He is so happy over there teasing her about her music choices…" They both looked over to see Sam laughing and poking her in the side as he poked fun at whatever she was suggesting. They saw it so many times during her life, they knew that's what was happening. "And despite anything that he says to her, he'll come back to the table and say, 'You wouldn't think that after all this time it'd still work, but there's just something about this sweet thing's little eyes that gets me ev'ry time.' Then, he's gonna tickle her in the side and make some comment about the song she chose and she's gonna tell us (or in this case, him) why she chose it."

Sam came back, obviously arm-in-arm with Mercedes and said just what his daughter-in-law thought he would. She smiled at her husband as Sam began to entertain them with funny stories about Mercedes. Delanna eventually said, "My absolute favorite Samcedes Evans moment was the proposal." Sam's eyes sparkled and he looked lovingly to his side at a beaming Mercedes. That _had _been a great time.

_Mercedes was performing her last show on her first tour, performing a hot number in which she danced and jumped around the stage a great deal. For the sake of her nerves, she had taken Unique, Tina and Blaine as her backup singers. Mike and Brittany were among her dancers. She'd wanted Santana to come along, but she was still working on her college career, and having a cheerleading scholarship, could not get away. Mike took a break from school because he knew that this tour would look great on his resume. Brittany was not in school, nor was Unique, who simply wanted to be a star. Mercedes, Tina and Blaine were taking all of their current classes online, in their extra time._

_ Sam had to stay in California for business. He was involved in making a studio motion picture and would only be able to catch perhaps three of her shows. He was certain that he would make the last one, because he had big plans for it. They had become the favorite couple of many Sam Evans fans, called Samcedes and the Diva and the Dork. Sam would make random videos, sometimes scripted, many times candid of their life together and post them on his official website._

_ Sometimes, the two of them would have online conversations about movies, songs, or whatever else they liked or didn't like. It cracked the fans up. For one, they LOVED Sam and his sense of humor. For two, they loved the way that the couple interacted with each other. So, by the time this particular show was underway, he made certain that he would have a certain moment captured on camera._

_ All of their old friends from Glee had made special arrangements to attend this particular show. Sam made sure that they all pledged and came through on their promise to attend. Kurt, Finn and Rachel were seated in a special section together. Rory, Sugar, Artie, Santana, Puck, and Matt Rutherford were on the front row. Lauren Zizes, Quinn and Joe were watching from backstage. Now, Mercedes was dancing, working all of what she had on that stage, singing her little heart out when Sam made his way onto the stage with a guitar and a flower._

_ When people began to somehow scream even louder, she turned and saw him. She excitedly forgot about the show and rushed to hug him hello. Through pants and deep breaths, she explained, "Any Sam Evans fans in the crowd, tonight?" Screams sounded all around the building and she looked at him, "I guess that the company must have approved this intrusion. You're crazy, but I can't believe you'd be THAT crazy, Sam Evans."_

_He reached out for Tina's microphone and snatched it from the stand, "Mercedes Jones, you underestimate me," he said. "I was thinking about the first time we sang a duet. Remember it?" He asked her, approaching her, center stage._

_She looked around for her manager, wondering if Sam had indeed taken it upon himself to just jump himself on the stage and insert this portion of the show… Her manager's hand was over his mouth in shock and confusion. **Oh my God… Sam Evans! **She looked at Sam again, totally anxious, now. "Let me refresh your mind," Sam said and the lights lit up her name on the stage, which caused the fans to go insane. Mercedes' nervousness only grew, but she did manage a smile at the lights. "I was the first person to put your name in lights, and I knew that we'd all be seeing this for the rest of our lives. You were gracious enough to sing with me, even though I'm really not a vocal match for you."_

_ A few tears made their way down her face as she turned from the lights, to Sam who was now close to her. "I'm hoping that tonight, you're willing to sing with me again. I went through a lot of trouble to make sure that it was okay for us to sing this song on stage." He smiled brightly and said, "I made it so!" She realized it was an impression. "That's my Captain Prichard," he told her. She glanced at her totally worried manager, but Sam, just as he had that faithful day, simply began playing his guitar… and dropped the microphone with an oops face and a chuckle._

_ Tina rushed to pick up her microphone, and quickly darted back out of the way of the duet while Mercedes began singing Human Nature. When Sam began to sing, she held her mic to his lips. The two of them stared at each other as he sung, and when the chorus came, they shared the microphone, but the stage director quickly sent someone to clip a portable to Sam by the time he began the second verse of the song. By the time they made it to the end of the song, Tina was crying her eyes out and Unique was fanning herself – the two of them fangirling like they had never seen anything so sweet before._

_ All of their friends went wild from their spots as Sam began to talk again, "Thank you, Mercy. I appreciate you indulging me, again. First time was in private, this time – everyone's here. Our friends, your parents, my parents," He was pointing a hand all around at those he mentioned. "I can't think of any better time to do this," he said and reached into his guiter to pull out a purple ring box. Mercedes' knees went weak as he bowed to one knee and everyone became a maniac! "Mercedes Jones, I am crazy about you. I will never want to be with anyone the way that I want to be with you. I know that you said you don't want to get married until after you've won a Grammy, but right now, all I'm looking for is that promise that when you're ready, I'm your man."_

_ She was crying, hard. He choked back tears of his own, because all of these things had to be said, "It doesn't matter how long the engagement is or how big of a wait I have ahead of me… I just need you to say 'Yes' and I need you to say it, tonight. Mercy, when the time's right, will you marry me?"_

_For the first time in years, Mercedes thought that she might pass out. Her grip was hard on the microphone and her breathing labored as she sobbed ugly cries and nodded her head. Sam looked down at the box and noticed that he hadn't even opened it, which made her chuckle at his face as he fumbled with opening it and dropped his guitar, then caught it with one hand and help the ring out to her with the other. "Little help, Mercy?" He said, trying to be quiet, but now, he had a microphone on himself. She laughed and reached for the guitar, to place it aside as he got up. "You didn't reach for the ring," he said._

_She fixed her hair, shook her head, took a deep breath, chuckled and said, "You're supposed to put it on my hand." Then she held her hand out to him and let him do just that, and kiss the top of it. He pulled her into a hug, wanting to kiss her, but unsure if that was overkill. She soon let him know, by pulling him into a big juicy one, that it was not. It was not, at all._

"It's my favorite part of the movie, too," Delanna said. Sam looked at her blankly and she clarified, "The movie that they made about Mercedes… Diary of a Diva."

"We should watch that tonight," Mercedes said to Sam.

"I can't remember the last time I saw it," he said.

"Last year, on my birthday," she said. At the same time, Marvel said, "Last year on Mom's birthday." She looked at him and smiled, proudly. Soon, their dinner was presented to them.

Sam sifted through all of their personal collection: There were all of his cartoons and movies, all of her concerts, documentaries about one or both of them, their three season reality television show, and the family movies. He sifted through until he found it and cheered, "Oh, I see it, Mercy! I was starting to think that one of the kids had made off with it."

"They all have their own copies," she said. "I really enjoyed lunch with Marvel and Delanna. I wish that we could see our other kids so often."

"Want to watch some family movies instead?" He asked and reached for a few of them. "I was kinda wanting to see the real version of that proposal again. Makes me remember what happened that night, after the show." He smiled at her and she rolled her eyes.

"I don't even know what you mean," she said.

"We'd been together for three years, but you had been holding back on me," he said.

"Sam!" She hissed, like anyone else could hear him, but her.

"I think I may still have that in my private stash in the office," he teased.

"Oh, just put on s movie, already! We both know that you'll spend it trying to get fresh with me. Have you no shame? We're both covered in wrinkles and sags!" She fussed, with a hand on her hip.

He put one of the movies into the player and joined her on the couch, "Nonsense. You're as pretty as you've ever been, and no, I have no shame. I'm a horny old man. I looked forward to becoming one with you from the moment I decided to propose." He pushed his face into her neck and kissed her, lovingly. But, he didn't press the issue. Mercedes was not as confident about her body as she had once been. While he still found her gorgeous, having gotten better with time, as far as he was concerned, he always only went so far and allowed her to decide the rest of the path.

"Is that new nurse here?" Mercedes asked.

"Yeah… I think that Sammie has her living here," Sam said.

Mercedes frowned. Wait, what was that? Had he missed an opportunity? "Mercy? You want to retire to the bedroom?"

"What about family movies?"

"They'll still be here afterwards," he said and tried to pull himself up. She quickly stood up first and helped him up, being the healthier of the two. "What would I do without you?" He asked and took her hand as they walked to their room together.


	5. The Afterparty

**5. The Afterparty**

_Unique made Rachel, Kurt and Blaine laugh with her diva-tude, as she speculated on whether or not they would even see Sam and Mercedes this night. Kurt quickly said, "We'd better see them, after coming together from all over the world to be here for them. Sure, we had no idea that this would be a proposal, but that just really added to the nature of the reunion. I'm not even bothered by the fact that Sam totally missed out on several opportunities to properly hit his notes in their duet." Blaine shook his head affectionately at his boyfriend and wrapped his arms around him from behind._

"_Sam hits all of his best notes when he's visiting Miss Jones in her dressing room," Unique commented, deadpan. The group laughed at her again as she held out her hands innocently and asked, "What? What?" She eventually had to laugh herself. _

_ Quinn was having a drink with Finn, Puck, Matt, Santana and Brittany, like old times, she thought. While waiting for the guests of honor, she modestly talked about her college career and steady boyfriend. She'd sent him several photos on her phone of her friends and the concert. The only people to have already met him were Sam and Mercedes, because his family was from LA, so they took trips to the city, at times. "Why the hell didn't you look me up?" Puck asked. She smiled tightly, shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of her drink. _

"_Because you're the guy that she had a kid with in high school," Santana said, as if it was obvious. "Why didn't he take this trip with you, though, Girl?" Santana asked._

"_This was short notice and we already had plans," Quinn said. "He's actually still a little pissed at me for cancelling. He and some of our friends are on a ski trip in Switzerland." She shrugged her shoulders, shyly. Finn shook his head, but she ignored it. She already knew what he was thinking – that she had not changed, that she had chosen her boyfriend for status and image, etc. They all probably were thinking the same thing. That was the second main reason that only Sam and Mercedes had met her beau – because she trusted them not to judge her for seemingly picking a certain type of guy… and he loved both of them, and vice versa. He thought it was sexy that Quinn was friends with people like them._

_ At first, she took offense to the comment, but he expounded, "You're pretty enough, rich enough and smart enough to be able to look down upon people without most people making a big deal out of it. But, instead, you're humble enough to hang out with a cute, heavy, squishy, black girl with a totally silly laugh and a sci-fi/comic book nerd who does impressions. That's very impressive."_

"_Don't be too impressed. They're great people and I'd be stupid not to be friends with them," she told him. That was why she was here, and why, even though he was upset, he understood. Mercedes was the only one of Quinn's friends from high school that regularly checked on her, sent her an actual gift for her birthday (instead of a birthday post on some social network, and most importantly, to Quinn… she always called her on Mother's Day to pray with her. She chatted with the others online sometimes. But there were no two people like Sam and Mercedes in her life._

_ Her face lit up when the couple walked in and she rushed to hug them, while everyone else was cheering them. Mercedes had cleaned up and changed into something hot and sexy, but still casual and Sam just looked like Sam. Quinn gave them a double hug as Mercedes asked, "Where's Blake?"_

"_Switzerland," Sam answered and waved his phone at her, "He texted us a congrats."_

"_Wait, so not only have you guys _met_ this Blake, but he _texts_?" Puck asked, incredulously._

"_We're friends on facebook, follow each other on twitter…" Sam went on, slightly confused as to why this was, even, a problem or an issue._

_Mercedes understood enough to realize that Puck's feelings were hurt and explained to Puck, "Sam is like Quinn's brother. When it comes to other guys, she brings them to him, lets him check them out, and if he likes them, they know he's the go to guy for advice and such, since they dated a while back and their great friends now."_

"_Dude is an awesome hunter," Sam bragged, "and his car collection is SWEET."_

"_No fricking way! You two go hunting?" Puck asked. He shook his head and went to grab himself another beer. Sam looked at Mercedes who simply shook her head and squeezed his hand._

_ Rachel rushed over to Finn and grabbed his hand to lead him to Sam and Mercedes. "Sam, Mercedes – let me just say that I had no idea when I placed the two of you in each other's arms for prom that your relationship would grow into a beautiful love almost as strong as my love for Finn…" She continued to talk while Sam widened his eyes, though not in surprise, just in the fact that he had almost forgotten how she could be. Quinn handed her own drink to Mercedes, so that the diva could shield the crazy looks that she was giving Rachel for trying to not only take credit for her relationship, but to overshadow it. **On the night of my engagement?**_

"_Hell to tha NO, Rachel! Just stop right there." Mercedes had a finger pointed at Rachel. The room was silent as Rachel stared at the finger with quivering lips. Mercedes laughed and said, "This is a party, Girl. We don't have the time to be trying to hear all of that." She waved a hand at her, then looked at Sam. **Can you believe her?** The face seemed to ask. Sam smiled softly at her and his eyes glazed over with the rebirth of that feeling – that 'she said yes' feeling that kept overcoming him each time he looked into her eyes, that 'she's really going to be mine forever' feeling._

_ Mercedes tried to tell Unique to stop taking photos. "That's Wade's job!" She joked, in remembrance of the ridiculous list of odd jobs he used to do for her, when he was still a "he." The entire time that he worked for her, though she hardly had much to pay him, she split evenly with him whatever they made when they sung on the streets with Sam and/or Puck playing guitar, and gradually, Unique became the woman that she had always seen herself to be. Mercedes and she had a professional photo shoot her first day completely changed and she kept a huge copy of her favorite one in a frame that she set next to her mirror, of Mercedes dazzling in purple, and her in all of her fabulous glory, adorned in metallic gold._

_Unique slapped the camera to Blaine's chest and said, "You have to get one of Mercedes and myself, and of course, Kurt." Unique squeezed herself between the two besties and the three proceeded to strike a number of poses, none of them the same, ever, for the camera."_

"_Werk!" Santana called out. Quinn clapped her hands excitedly._

_Unique called, "All my ladies, get yourself in this group picture!" Santana, Brittany, Tina, Lauren, Quinn, Rachel and Sugar all crowded into the space with the three of them, now centering themselves around Mercedes. Unique said, "This is just a preview of what the wedding is gonna be like."_

_Kurt said, "In that case, let's switch, so I can be by Cedes." _

_Unique threw him a look, but simply moved to the opposite side of Mercedes, so that Kurt was on one side and herself the other. "I'll just get here, instead – because of course I'll be next to her at the wedding."_

"_You two…" Blaine warned._

_Kurt waved his fingers at Blaine and said, "Now, now, Blaine." Then, he turned to Unique and said, "You think that Mercedes is making you the maid of honor in her wedding, when we have already decided and determined that I am her maid of honor, as she will be mine, when the time comes?"_

_Mercedes, still smiling towards the camera now said, "I'm with Blaine on this, don't ruin the photo op, ladies!" Unique and Kurt turned to the camera and smiled brightly._

_But, through her smiling teeth, Unique managed, "I think that once you ditched Mercedes to go frolicking off with Rachel Berry that you denounced your position as maid of honor."_

_Kurt's neck twirled as his head snapped back to Unique. The look in his eyes was something Mercedes had never seen, "I. Designed. The. Wedding. Dress! And as far as denouncing my spot, I did no such thing. Rachel is my friend, but Mercedes is my sister. The first person that I ever came out to, the woman who has already agreed to bear my children, so that I will not have to fight with prejudiced adoption agencies for a child…"_

"_Wait, what?" Sam asked, from somewhere behind Blaine._

_Rachel stepped in, and said, "Ladies, ladies… while it is obvious that we all love Mercedes very much, tonight is a special night for her and Sam. They've gotten engaged. The twinkle of love is still fresh in their eyes and it would be a shame for anyone to ruin this night for them with violence and bickering. I'm sure that a compromise can be made. Kurt, you could let Unique be the maid of honor in Mercedes' wedding and I will have you as the maid of honor in mine."_

_Mike and Matt pressed their lips together, trying not to laugh at Rachel as Kurt gently moved her out of his line of sight and said, "That isn't even a solution. Mercedes," he said and held his hands out."_

_Mercedes opened her mouth, unsure of what to say, but Sam quickly stepped in and offered, "Mercy's gonna honor both of you. Let's be honest – we have no idea how long it'll take us to plan the wedding. First, we have a Grammy to win, then we'll have hectic schedules to work around and all of the planning arrangements. By the time we get married, Kurt – you'll already be married. Know what that means? "_

"_Matron of honor," Mercedes said, impressed with Sam's response._

_Kurt thought for a moment, rocking his shoulders left and right, looking ready to keep up the fight, but soon hopped up and down and fanned himself, "That's even better!" he cheered._

_Sam said, "And Unique, you'll still get to be the maid of honor." _

_Unique smiled, moved out of the group and ordered Blaine, "Take a photo of Sam and I."_

_Kurt looked at Mercedes and told her, "She has one more time to bark at him, like that."_

_Mercedes laughed, grabbed his arm and led him to more drinks._

_ They were seated in a circle, reminiscing and sharing about all things current and the future. Every lover was hugged up, with their own. The few singles were fine, just being around friends. Mercedes suddenly wiped a tear and Sam, alarmed, looked down at her in his arms. "I miss you all, everyday. Well, I skype with Kurt and Quinn all the time and of course I see all of my tour mates, but the tour's over now and the rest of you I just never get to see enough of."_

"_That'll only become harder as you and Sam continue to grow more famous," Joe said. "I've told people at my church that I was in God Squad with the two of you in high school, and they think that I'm joking until I pull out photos."_

"_You carry photos of the God Squad around with you?" Artie asked. Laughs sounded from around the circle._

"_I keep photos of all of my friends on me. I keep a couple of small albums in my backpack. You never know when you need to see the smiling face of a friend," Joe said. Santana rolled her eyes in amusement. **Hasn't changed one bit.** _

_ Suddenly, they heard Mercedes softly began to sing, "And I never thought I'd feel this way. And as far as I'm concerned I'm glad I got the chance to say, that I do believe I love you…" And Sam came in with, "And if I should ever go away; Well, then close your eyes and try to feel the way we do today. And then if you can't remember..."_

_Quinn and Artie smiled at each other and both began to sing, "Keep smiling. Keep shining, knowing you can always count on me. For sure."_

_Rachel sang, "That's what friends are for…"_

_And Kurt immediately cut in with, "For good times and bad times," and he and Unique tore up, "I'll be on your side forever more."_

_Now Blaine sang, "That's what friends are for."_

_Santana began to sing next, "Oh, and then, for the times when we're apart," and Joe joined in with her, grabbing her hand as he did, "Well just close your eyes and know these words are coming from my heart."_

_And Tina and Mike came in with them on, "And then if you can't remember." Mercedes listened, silently and watched her friends reach out to each other in love, with hugs and smiles and all the things that she loved so much about all of them and being a part of this group._

_Rory now sang, "Keep smiling. Keep shining."_

_Sugar: Knowing you can always count on me._

_Matt: Oh for sure! Cause, I'll tell you – _

_Everyone: That's what friends are for! _

_After that, there was much adlibbing from the heavies and continuous repeats of the chorus from the background singers. Mercedes simply rested her head on Sam until the song was coming to a close and for old time's sakes, she belted out the end. The old glee club cheered and Sam kissed her on the forehead._

_ The crew had performed some of their old favorite numbers for each other, (though Rachel discovered that without Mr. Shue there to orchestrate, most of everyone's favorites did not involve her, nor Finn.) Sam had gotten to know Matt better, having never had the chance to meet him, as the guy graduated the year before Sam came into the glee club, but he seemed pretty cool and Sam appreciated that even though he wasn't close to them that he still felt close enough to the old glee club to show up. Mr. Shue had a competition to attend, but sent his love and best wishes to Mercedes. Mercedes didn't know if she really believed that. _

_She felt more like Mr. Shue was embarrassed that he had put her in the background so much and spotlighted Rachel, and now Mercedes was becoming a big star and Rachel had been regularly auditioning for musicals since Nyada, but still had not had any big breaks. _

_ Sam was lying beneath Mercedes with his arms wrapped around her. She was asleep, after having spent hours in bed with him after all of their friends went their separate ways for the night… which was closer to in the morning. He and Mercedes made love to each other over and over, more than they ever had, in history, more passionately and diligently and even though she was tired, it was almost like she could not stop until her body simply gave out in exhaustion. Now, he was blissfully staring at the ceiling, cherishing the thought of always having her here by his side._

Sam Evans woke up in a great deal of pain. His side was hurting and he was unsure of why. He didn't see Mercedes, so assumed that she was probably in the bathroom, getting ready to start her day. "Mercy!" he called out. "Mercy, I'm in pain!" She peeked her head into the room and rushed next to him. "You look as pretty as an angel, Mercy. Where are you going, today?"

The new live in nurse rushed into the room and said, "Mr. Evans, I heard you call out. What's wrong?"

"I was calling my wife," he said, politely, but sternly.

"Okay, Mr. Evans, but you know your wife's a multimillion dollar album selling, Grammy winning, icon, and while that's impressive as all get out… she's not your nurse, she's not even _a _nurse. But, I am… So. What's wrong?"

"She reminds me of Coach Roz," he chuckled.

"Sam, tell what what's wrong with you, so she can help," Mercedes urged, concerned.

The old man sighed and said, "Last night, my wife and I spent some quality time together and I think that I hurt myself." Mercedes covered her mouth with both hands and turned away, embarrassed. But, the nurse simply began to ask Sam different questions, to try to see what he might have done to himself.

Just as a precaution, the nurse set up an appointment for Sam to see his doctor later on in the day. Sam hated going to the doctor. Every time he went, it felt like he had gotten bad news. "I'm still thinking about the proposal weekend," Sam said to Mercedes as they sat in the backseat of the nurse's car.

Mercedes replied, "I enjoyed the proposal and the after-party, but I did not enjoy the next day." Sam laughed out loud and she just grimaced. "It was not funny."

"Not at the time," he said…


	6. One Big Happy Family

**6. One Big Happy Family**

On the ride to the doctor's office, Mercedes and Sam sat in the backseat and talked amongst themselves as the nurse drove and watched them in the mirror. Mr. Evans was one strange man. He was quite the sweetheart, unless he was in pain – then he became moody and snapped at people a lot, repeatedly apologizing to his imaginary companion for his tone and responses. But, what really made the nurse consider him strange was not his dementia at all.

She thought that it was strange that he had such an empire beneath him, yet he remained humble and gracious. He was perfectly loving, even to strangers and very helpful to those in need. Even as an old man who could easily be hurt, she had witnessed him jump to the defense of a complete stranger being hassled. "Mr. Evans, how is your hip feeling?"

"Feels like _somebody_ rocked it out of place!" He said with a chuckle and leaned forward, blowing a raspberry at his wife, next to him. The nurse smiled and shook her head. _He is something else. _

"Well, at least she's still letting you get at that, Mr. Evans. I've worked with a lot of people your age and some even younger who either weren't able to have fun like that anymore or didn't have the drive!" She laughed at how red in the face the old man became when she said this, but he laughed too, even while holding on to his pelvis. It clearly still hurt.

"I figured that your parents would never want me anywhere near you again that day," Sam said quietly to Mercedes. The nurse did her best to tune them out, unless she heard key words. She loved the elderly and letting them have peace in their later years was a kindness that she didn't mind extending for all of the wisdom that she had gotten from them over the course of her career.

_Sam awoke to the sound of some rumbling in the apartment. He looked at Mercedes. The noise hadn't stirred her one bit, but it alarmed him. What the? Who the hell was here? Then, he heard a crashing sound and some voices. Sam threw the covers off of himself and reached for a bat that he kept near the bed for such an occasion. For one of what Mercedes called these "I wish a mutha would" moments. Somebody had broken into their apartment and was in there crashing stuff! He came out of the room slowly, still undressed. __**Yep, I'm about to whup somebody down, buck naked.. Break into my house. Threaten my woman's safety and the security of our home… **_

_ But then, he heard a familiar voice and he remembered – Mercedes' parents still had keys. Mrs. Jones' voice was nearby, but he figured he could make a break back into the bedroom without notice. No such luck – her voice came closer then she screamed, "Oh my Lord!" Sam, instead of running, turned and faced her, looking frightened stiff, and unfortunately, literally stiff (it was morning after all)._

_ The woman's eyes reflexively went down to the area, then she gasped at her action and covered her eyes with both hands. Simultaneously, he dropped the bat and covered himself with both hands. "What is it?" He heard his mother's voice ask and as he backed away, apologizing repeatedly. From bad to worse, Mr. Evans and Mr. Jones appeared and Sam simply took off running, naked behind out._

_ When Sam ran back intot he bedroom and shut the door, Mercedes jumped up with her hair matted to her head and stared at him with open wide eyes, "What is this noise?" She asked._

"_I was just seen by both of our parents!" He spun around in a circle and threw his hands up, "Just like this!" He said._

_Her lip dropped and she covered her mouth with both hands. "Oh, God! I'm sorry, Sam. My mom told me last night that they would be by this morning. I guess I had too much to drink..." Her eyes suddenly widened and she jumped out of the bed, "Oh no! They know that you spent the night!"_

_He looked at her, confused, "Spent the night? I live here."_

_Mercedes climbed out of bed, started scrambling for clothes and explained, "When I first got here, there was this rule that no guys could spend the night and that you could not move in. When we started making money, we changed the lease, but my folks still made me promise that I wouldn't have sex here, have guys sleepover and most importantly, not let you move in."_

_Sam stopped Mercedes from running into the bathroom and said, "Your parents think that we have been living in separate homes for the past three years? You kept up a lie to them for that long?"_

"_You know how they are. Kurt and Unique can be my best friends all day long, but God forbid I ever have a homosexual attraction to another woman. Quinn was able to live with us for a while, but they would flip, even today if I have a child out of wedlock. They probably most likely know that you and I have sex, but knowing that you live here – where it's a regular practice and not a slip up while we're waiting to get married. Ugh!" She shook her head. "I've got to rush to get ready and try to go out there and do some damage control."_

"_You mean make up a lie," Sam said, disappointed in what she had just told him._

_ The two of them came out of the room, cleaned up and dressed and looking bashful and embarrassed. "I'm sorry about this morning," Sam said. "We had the old Glee club here until late and fell to sleep. Mercedes forgot to tell me to set the alarm and when I heard crashing in here, I presumed that we were being robbed. This is that type of neighborhood," he said._

_ Then, he hugged his parents and awkwardly shook his future in-laws' hands. He had told Mercedes not to mention his living there unless they brought it up. So, she hugged everyone hello and took her seat, as well. "You two aren't going to eat? Seems like you had a long night," Mr. Jones said, eyeing Sam with a glare._

_Sam shrugged and said, "Yeah. Mercedes had that show, and I had that proposal. It was a long night." He jumped up from the table and when Mercedes do so, as well, he said, "No, baby. Allow me. I know exactly what you like." Mr. Jones made a grunt sound and Sam realized how messed up his comment might have sounded to the man. "This smells delicious. Was breakfast a team effort?"_

"_The ladies did us a wonderful kindness," Mr. Jones said. Mercedes smiled at her mom and Mary Evans. "So… you spend the night frequently?" Marvin Jones finally asked Sam, though he was studying Mercedes. Her smiled vanished and she choked on nothing._

"_Yes, Sir. You need some water, Cedes?" Sam answered and tried to move on._

"_How frequently?" Marvin asked._

_The Evans looked highly uncomfortable. They had known that the couple lived together literally the entire time Sam had been in California. _

"_Some juice, if you don't mind," Mercedes said, trying to clear her throat._

_Sam poured the juice and when he went to the table to bring it and the plate to Mercedes, he took a deep breath and said, "Mr. Jones, I'm sorry. I have actually been living here. My name is on the lease and everything." He rubbed Mercedes' back gently and said, "I wish that we would've told you sooner, but Mercy was under a lot of stress with trying to go to school and work on her music career and she was worried about disappointing you. I just couldn't afford to live elsewhere, at first – but I couldn't stand the thought of being away from her while I tried to."_

_ Mercedes eyes studied the food on her plate and she wanted to eat, very badly. She was starving, but she could not move to even lift her fork. Marvin rolled his eyes and gave them a small smile, "Sam, I understand that you love each other and that you want to be together. It's just that I don't appreciate being lied to or secrets being kept from me."_

"_I know, Sir. I am really sorry that we did that to you," he replied._

"_You need to learn how to stop doing that. I've always taught my daughter to take responsibility for what she does wrong. She's the one who agreed not to let this happen and I'm relatively sure that you didn't even know about it. But, here you are, trying to take the blame."_

"_I… need to stop?" Sam asked._

"_She's a big girl," Mrs. Jones commented. "She doesn't need you to shield her."_

"_Maybe not," Sam said, "But, I'll never stop." He shrugged his shoulders, then squeezed one of Mercedes' and kissed her on the top of the head. "My baby deserves nothing less than happiness." He went back to the food to make himself a plate as Mercedes apologized to her parents and by the time he returned to the table, all was forgiven and the proposal and upcoming wedding became topics._

_ After a while, there was a knock on the door and Mary said, "That's probably Quinn with the kids." _

_Mercedes and Sam both cheered, in each other's faces, "Stevie and Stacey!" And the couple got up and ran to the front door like children to Christmas. Christina, Mercedes' mother laughed at the two grown people acting like children. When Sam opened the door, Puck stormed in and began fussing, "Quinn is pissing me off!" He froze when he saw the Evans and the Jones and covered his mouth with one hand, "I'm sorry. Um… Sam, can I see you outside?" He walked back out and Sam sighed._

_Mercedes abruptly let Puck know, "We're having some family time, so if it's gonna upset, worry or preoccupy my **fiancé, **then please, at least wait until our families are headed back to Lima."_

"_It's alright," Sam said and nudged his head outside to indicate to Puck he was coming._

_Mercedes whispered, "Do not get in the middle of any of his Quinn drama, Sam."_

"_I won't. He was really upset last night. I just have to make sure he's gonna be okay," Sam said softly. "This is a part of our life – helping other people out when they need it, even if it interferes with something else."_

"_Praise," she said and leaned up to give him a proud, but chaste kiss. Sam went outside and shut the door behind him. Mercedes returned to the table with the parents and they began to talk more about Sam and Mercedes' careers._

_Sam placed his hands on Puck's shoulders and asked, "What is it?"_

"_Did you know that Quinn has this Blake dude in Beth's life? When Shelby lets her come to see Beth, she __**b rings **__this guy! Tell me that you didn't know that, Sam." Puck practically choked the words out._

"_I didn't realize that Quinn seeing someone would be such an issue for you, Man. I wish that I could say that it's nothing, but I think this is the guy she's going to be with, ultimately."_

"_You knew," Puck said._

"_I thought that you knew!" Sam said. "Look, I have no idea why women are so secretive, but they obviously are, because I found out today that Mercedes' mom and dad thought that I lived with you all this time."_

_Puck chuckled slightly, then remembered that he was pissed off and grimaced, "They're secretive because they're selfish snakes and they can't be trusted."_

"_Watch it, Puck. That almost sounded like you were insulting Mercy," Sam said, with his face immediately reddening._

"_I'm obviously talking about Quinn. What is she trying to prove. Beth's at the age where her memory is beginning to get mad overactive, and she's giving her all these memories with her perfect, flawless, rich, awesome Yale boy. How am I supposed to compete with that. I may not be able to ever have Quinn, but if I lose Beth's love and respect to some other guy… Sam," Puck just shook his head and Sam's features softened._

"_Puck, that little girl knows that you're her daddy, and she loves you. Even if Quinn brought the richest most handsome Yale or whatever preppy school guy home to the kid – Beth would always realize that **you're **her dad and she's always going to love you. You're great with her and you're good to her," Sam reassured his friend._

"_I didn't mean to bother family time. I've literally been text fighting with Quinn for like three hours and the last one I got was 'I'm out with friends. Leave me in peace.' Then she never responded again. I sent her like fifteen texts after that. Sam's eyes widened at his friend's confession, but Puck waved a wand and said, "I'm not crazy, Bro. The last thing that I asked her was if she thought she might marry this guy, and that was her response. Of course, I'm gonna think that means she might want to have a family with Beth… **without **me, Sam!"_

_Once again, Sam placed his hands on Puck's shoulders and said, "Not gonna happen. Shelby's not letting go of Beth and even if she did, I know Quinn. She wouldn't try to just have a family with Beth and someone else."_

"_Didn't she proposition you for just that when you came back to Lima?" Puck asked._

"_That was high school Quinn. She's done some major changing. Just give her some space and when you're calm, talk to her again, tell her your concerns, but don't blow up. You'll make her think she has to be less than honest with you." Sam's green eyes followed the sound of an approaching vehicle and he took a swallow. It was Quinn. **Great timing. **_

_ Stevie and Stacey rushed out of the car to hug Sam and he tousled with the preteens as he tried to force them into the apartment before any scenes broke out between Quinn and Puck. When they finally came in, Mercedes gasped a long, hard gasp and both of the kids rushed to hug her and practically tackled her out of her chair. "SIS!" Stacey cheered upon seeing her. Sam had told his siblings before anyone else that he was going to propose and they were charged with keeping it a secret until today._

Sam sat in the doctor's office with his nurse, rocking his legs back and firth and studying his hands. They were shaking – but that was normal for him, now. He was amazed at how wrinkled they were and he noticed that he had another random bruise. He bruised so easily, now. He used to be so tough and unbreakable. Now, _everything _was a threat to his person. He studied his arm and saw that he was bleeding. He frowned at the scratch and glanced at the nurse. She quickly went into her bag for something to quickly cleanse and cover the scratch. "How'd you get that, Mr. Evans?"

"I have no earthly idea," he answered honestly. She patted the old man on the leg and smiled gently at him. That made him look over to Mercy, who didn't look all too pleased with the younger black woman, who was not as short, but had as many curves as she did. If Mercedes was Sam's type, then Miss Thang probably was, too. "I'm not remotely interested in this woman," he told his wife. "Stop making that face." He shook his head at the nurse and laughed, "You'd better keep your hands to yourself. My little lady sometimes gets territorial."

"She's seems so sweet and secure in your love, though," the nurse commented with a quick smile towards Mercedes' seat and a wink.

"Don't let the soft voice fool you. I will reach across this man's lap and slap that eye right out of your socket!" Mercedes snapped. Sam smiled proudly and boldly.

The nurse asked, "_What_ did she say?"

"Just thinking out loud," Sam said and squeezed Mercy's knee to laugh her giggle, in spite of herself.

The pain was arthritis related. He knew that things could be worse, but arthritis affecting his pelvis worried him. He sometimes had it to bother his ankles and knees. Damn it, his pelvis might keep him down for longer than he could appreciate being down. But, at least nothing was pulled or broken. At his age, that could be a complete catastrophe. But even this would be difficult to endure. This pain was quite something. God, there used to be a time when he thought that he was invincible.


	7. The Dead

_I have to let you all know that I am really grateful for everyone who's reading the story and especially those giving me feedback. Some are doing reviews, some are sending me personal messages and I just am really humbled and appreciative of everybody who took the time to read and everyone who has taken the time to reach out and let me know how you feel about this work. If I could bake all of you toffee bars and brew you some vanilla chai tea, I'd do it and smother each of you with hugs. Love y'all!_**  
**

_On another note, there are several things that I kinda mention and skim past, but I promise that it is my intention to either go into detail of these things later in this story (which is turning out to be longer than I initially planned) or doing side pieces, through one shots or drabbles.  
_

**7. The Dead  
**

It pleased Sam to not have to deal with Sammie this morning. It was the weekend and the nurse would be off, so he knew that his granddaughter would drag her poor boy to the house, even though there were no kids, his age, to entertain him. When Sam woke up, he found that Mercedes was no longer asleep on him, but he found her cuddled beneath the covers in the bedroom. They had slept on the lucky chair, because it honestly did not hurt him as much as the bed. He guessed that his lovely wife needed her big comfty space. He went into the kitchen to see if there was something that he could whip together for breakfast, but his hands were hurting – the arthritis, so he was just going to tough it out until Mercedes woke up, then see if she wanted to walk to the little diner right outside of their gated community. Sometimes, they walked there for breakfast.

He went through their home, which Mercedes and her old friend, Kurt had mostly decorated together. Kurt passed away a couple of years back, which broke Mercedes' heart so badly that she made him a little tribute section of the photo shelf… photos of his wedding to Blaine Anderson, the two couples at a Christian-based gay rights rally, photos of Blaine and Kurt's children (one, a boy which Mercedes carried after artificial insemination with Kurt, another, a girl Kurt's sister-in-law, Rachel carried, from Blaine's sperm, and their adopted gay son, who they took in after his parents rejected him for who he was), and even a framed copy of the program from Kurt's elaborately fabulous funeral. Sam smiled sadly as he picked up the frame. The only man that he could actually comfortably share Mercedes with…

When you got to be a certain age, all of the people that you knew began to die off – both family and friends. Sam no longer had living parents. His younger brother, Stevie, passed before him, which seemed unfair to Sam, but was of course, out of his control. Out of all of their old Glee Club friends, they had already lost Santana, Artie, Finn (young), Rachel, Sugar, Rory, Brittany, and Kurt. Besides that, Quinn was seriously ill, battling with her health back and forth, for the past few years (but seemingly getting worse, recently. Mike and Tina were surprisingly in wonderful health, despite their age, but he did not have the chance to see them much. He presumed that they probably were somewhere happy as hell, enjoying their last years loving each other without interruption.

Sam and Puck still got together from time to time, and Blaine stopped in, sometimes with the son that Mercedes carried and spent weekends with them, in between their travels. Joe and Sam were actually quite close, but Joe was currently overseas on some mission work. He was Pastor at one of the biggest churches in the country and frequently set up missions and outreach opportunities.

There were photos of all of their deceased friends on this particular photo display, but Sam startled when he saw a picture of Mercy on the end. He picked it up. It had been taken probably less than a year before, at a celebration of surrogate mothers. His eyebrows furrowed and he collected the photo from the shelf with shaky hands. He studied it, hard and tried to remember ever putting it there. Mercy certainly would not have accidentally… Sammie. He laughed, relieved and shook his head. Obviously their granddaughter did not realize that this was the death tribute display.

He carried the photo along with him to see if Mercedes had finally woken up and saw that the bed was now empty. He placed her photo on the nightstand and peeked into the bathroom to see her dressing herself. "Oh, trying to sneak a peek, eh?" she teased.

"I don't have to _sneak _anything, woman – all that's my stuff, already," he answered and walked in to give her a good morning kiss. "I was thinking that we could walk down to the diner and get some breakfast. You up for it?"

"Yes," she said with one nod.

"Good. Let's try to make it before Sammie gets here and tries to control everything that I do," he suggested with a serious face. Mercedes' countenance changed, now. He stared curiously at her and she simply continued dressing, without speaking her concerns. "Mercy, are you alright, Baby?"

She brushed her hair up into a ponytail. The walk would ruin any curls that she tried to put into it anyway. "I used to be her favorite person in the world. Now, she can't even stand to waste her time to acknowledge me. Does she think that I _meant _to let you slip in the tub?"

"If she did think that, she would be an idiot. I think that since the slip, she's afraid that you can't help me with something if I get pains or lose my balance again," he offered, thoughtfully. "She's just worried about me, because I'm the one that's been in and out of the hospital. You're hardly ever sick. That's a good thing… Means that you'll outlive me. I sure don't want to try to figure out how to live without you here."

"When did the 'no morbid thoughts about a dire future' rule get thrown out?" She asked, looking at him with a serious and annoyed glare.

He laughed and said, "I guess it was on my mind because I was looking at the photos on the dedication display. Sammie accidentally put a photo of you there." He waved a hand and said, "To be honest, I couldn't even remember its rightful place, myself. I just put it on my nightstand – it's full of pictures of you, anyway."

"She put my photo on with our dead loved ones? That's an odd mistake, Sam. She knows that everyone pictured there is dead. There are only a few photos of living people on it, and those are only ones taken with dead people."

"Maybe it wasn't even her. Maybe it was the nurse, whose name I never remember. Innocent mistake, Mercy. But, I am gonna talk to Sammie about that attitude, again. I've told her a dozen times to stop ignoring you."

"Just leave it," Mercedes said as she hit the light and rushed out of the room.

"I can't. I made a vow inside my heart a long time ago that as long as I live, you will be respected, or me and somebody was gonna fight."

"Like you are really in any position at your age to be trying to fight anyone, Sam Evans!" She fussed.

"Zaydyn's almost sixty years old and he's still fightin' and even better now than ever," Sam declared.

"First off, Zaydyn's race can live for hundreds of years before their power core burns out and they have to be revived in other vessel. Second, Zaydyn isn't sixty in the comics. He's even older and has been revived several times, already. Third – of course he can fight better, he has a whole team responsible for every move he makes, now. In speaking of which, did you call _your son_ back about the 60th Birthday Celebration?"

Sam tried to think if he could remember speaking to his son about this event, but was coming up blank. "I don't think that I did, but I don't know if I do want to be a part of it. It's like you said all those years ago, when I released it into someone else's hands, the work changed."

"Your son calls it reimagining," she said as they left the house for their walk. She rolled her eyes; then, she reached for his hand and they made their way to the diner.

_ This was Mercedes' first time in Tennessee. Sam had talked about it, befire and she wanted to visit the place that helped mold the man that she was made to love, but they never had time in their schedules and it wasn't a part of her tour. Project Zayden had branched out. There were other artists interested in coming out with their own comic books and Sam, knowing how hard it could be, began a small printing company to put out their work. Since Mercedes was constantly calling him "crazy" he wanted that in the name, and somewhere along the way came up with Borderline Crazy Comics._

_ While Zaydyn was under contract with another company, Sam was unable to put out any books involving him under his own label. But, he did quite well with the work coming through his place and eventually, Zaydyn became a part of the Borderline Crazy family. The first free weekend that Sam and Mercedes both had, they high-tailed it out of LA, and refused to go anywhere that people might bother them. "It's a good time for Tennessee," Sam commented when they went to the airport, without any plan, whatsoever. _

_ Now, here they were, renting a cottage and walking the grounds. "This place is really pretty. When I think Tennessee… I'm sorry, but I've never imagined there would be nice places, here." She admitted._

"_Well, there are. Now, you see why I want to come back when I'm old and have had all my fun?" He asked and pulled her close to him to snuggle her. "But, staying in the rental house has made me realize something… Even though anywhere that we're together is home to me, I think we should start looking for a house." Her eyes widened as she turned to look at him. "It has to happen, eventually. It's been on my mind. We're going to be together… I want us to just keep growing together, and we are outgrowing that apartment." She smiled and nodded her head. That man could probably talk her into anything. He kissed her on the lips and squeezed her tightly. _

_Upon returning to California, Sam began searching for their future house. It would be years before they settled down, down while in L.A, he didn't want to keep her in that little apartment any longer than he had to. Her album sales were ferocious and since the tour, her fan base had grown exponentially! She was working on her second album when she found out that she was nominated for not one but **three **Grammies! In her excitement and the growing volume of interviews, she barely had time to go house hunting with Sam. But, when he had her to himself, he decided to show her the perfect house for them. "What do you think?" He asked with this twinkle in his eyes._

_ Mercedes smiled, awkwardly and glanced around at the place. They could afford better – but that was besides the point, because this place left much to be desired. She tried not to scrunch her face up as she searched for a polite description of the place, "It has some character," she finally said and looked at him. "You really love this place? I mean, is that a twinkle I see in your eyes?"_

_Sam looked slightly crestfallen, but he managed to still tell her, "I know that it isn't perfect, but I really think that it's perfect for us." He took her hand and walked around the place with her, talking animatedly, passionately as he shared his opinion of the place, "It tells the story of this ADORABLE but insecure angel who tried to pretend that she was the diva that she knew was inside of her and this homeless kid who thought that he had nothing to offer anyone and was scared to ask for anything, because of that. How they came together, thinking that they liked each other and found out that they were wrong." _

_He stopped in a room that she realized was starting to look more like a room that she could turn into the perfect family room, and even began mapping out where her furniture and decoration would work in it, as Sam wrapped his hands around her waist and stared at her, still talking, "Turns out that they loved each other; then, that turned out wrong too. They actually found that they loved each other more than anything. And since we got together, all we've been doing is building up each other and building up ourselves for each other, at the same time, together. We knew neither of us was perfect, but we worked as a unit to try to be perfect for each other, and we still work on that right now, and we build on it – just like we could build on this place. That's what this house represents to me… something that we can work on together and make our home."_

_Mercedes could see them placing their contracts on this mantle, and coming in after a long day to see Sam diligently working, seated on his lucky chair in this room. He looks up at her and his face brightens to see her as he rushes to scoop her off of her feet as his wife and love and to kiss her… "Is that a twinkle that I see in your eyes?" Sam asked and she looked out of her daze to see him smiling at her with great expectation._

"_I see exactly what you mean," she said and nodded her head. "This is the house, Sam. It's perfect for us!" Then, she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tightly. "You really ought to write more. You are a wonderful storyteller, Sam Evans."_

Sam did not understand the fuss when he looked to see all five of his and Mercedes' children at the house with Sammie, when he got back. "What's this? Is there a party?" He thought really hard and asked, "Is it Zadyn's Birthday Celebration?" Sammie rushed to him and threw her arms around his neck, in tears. "I could have sworn that's supposed to be in Los Angeles," he mumbled, to himself.

"Grandpa, what are you doing leaving the house without telling anyone?" She fussed through her tears. "I called you so many times!"

Marvel warned, "Sammie. Calm down, or you might scare him. Go and make Dad some tea, please?" He had his arms folded, with stress lines all over his face, but his eyes were gentle. When Sammie disappeared into the kitchen with her mother right behind her, Marvel asked, "So, Dad – where were you today?"

"We walked to the diner to have breakfast. My pelvis was bothering me, so we stayed at the diner a while, laughing and talking. "It's great to see all of you together. Had I known that it took a death scare, I'd be rushing off, all the time," Sam said bitterly and folded his arms. Mercedes stood next to him, waiting to be acknowledged. Once again, she wasn;t and that just pissed Sam off even further than _his_ childrenacting like he was a small child."

"Well, Dad, it's like Sammie said – we tried to contact you. She called, I called, everyone here called and none of us got an answer to know that you were okay. That would've been the right thing to do. When you never answered, we feared the worse," Marvel offered, calmly.

But, Sam was not here for this, today. He had just had an amazing morning with his wife – and here it was – the inevitable interruption! Why the hell couldn't these kids just leave him the hell alone, like they did when he and Mercedes began to age and found it harder to come to visit each of them? Why couldn't they just treat him the same way they were treating her, like he was already gone. "Ugh, Mercedes, deal with your children. I can't with them when they get like this." Mercedes opened her mouth to try to speak, but, the oldest of their daughters (their third child, Whitney), interrupted.

"Daddy, we're talking to you, right now. You are the one wandering off, knowing full well that you have a condition. What if you had gotten stranded? You weren't answering your phone. How could we know that things were fine?" She asked, looking almost just like her mother, except she was slightly taller, a shade lighter and lean. Her dark, hair was straightened and fell past her shoulders in a loose, silky bob, and her chestnut eyes were bloodshot from crying with worry.

"What the hell are any of you even doing in Tennessee?" Sam asked, his head beginning to hurt just from having to deal with this foolishness. "We just want to be happy as we grow old together and all of you are just…" He held the side of his head.

Now, his second born (his son), Dorian, the current owner of all things Zadyn (business-wise), spoke up, "Everyone should just be glad that Pops is safe and home." He wrapped an arm around his father's shoulders and led him to the couch, "Come on, Old Man. I haven't seen you in months and it's been a few days since we talked. Have you been getting ready for Zadyn's 60th Birthday Celebration? It's almost here." Dorian's head of wild black curls glistened at all times and his eyes were somewhere between a green and a hazel and liked to change colors on people. He was a golden color, and tall, but stocky. He had some girth on him.

Marvel announced, "I'm going to see how things are going with the tea," and retreated into the kitchen. Whitney followed, without any speech, but slammed her palms against the kitchen door to shove it open. The two youngest of the siblings, Majesty (the fourth born) and the youngest, Wagner, looked at each other and decided to just stay in the room.

"You've said a lot of words, but haven't explained why you're all in Tennessee," Sam said.

"It's been brought to our attention that it isn't exactly fair for Marvel's daughter to be solely responsible for you," Dorian answered.

"Dorian Creed…" Mercedes practically hissed the name out as she glared at him, ready to give him a piece of her mind. He certainly wasn't concerned about Sam's welfare when he was snatching his life's work from his grasp!

Sam patted her leg and said, "Dorian, no one _has _to be responsible for me. I'm fine. Mercedes and I have never been better. I mean, the worst thing that I have going on, aside from my shakes is arthritis."

Mercedes got up from the couch and said, "I'll be in the bedroom."

Sam's eyes dampened at her retreating back and Dorian looked towards her, then back at his father. "What's up, Pops?"

"All of you are here, waiting for me to die and upsetting your mother!" He fussed, then pulled himself up and followed her out of the room. "I'm going into my bedroom. Let a man and his wife have some privacy. Do not bother us."

Dorian said with a shrug, "When you're ready to see us, we'll be here, waiting, Pops." Sam left without another word.

Dorian Creed Evans and his mother fell out a few years prior, when Dorian forcibly pushed Sam out of his place at Borderline Crazy Comics – Sam's company. While their son insisted it was best for Sam and the company that he be removed, the matter in which it was done enraged her and began a war between the two of them that she never thought that she would ever have with one of her children. While he claimed to love her and his father dearly, and did make sure that Sam still received a fortune in royalties, he changed everything about the company and most importantly, about Zaydyn.

During Dorian's reign, the character went through a series of evil, starting with the issue _Dark Zaydyn, _in which Zadyn becomes so enraged at the enslavement of the Xetygeron on his current Earth that he turns against Earth and decides to become a freedom fighter for his own people… That wasn't the problem. It was debatably out of character for him, but to ensure to his people that he was serious about the issue, he killed the one human that he had protected for decades, the love of his life, his best friend and partner, Madison… _the Mercedes character._

Mercedes took it as a personal attack on his feelings for her and found it hard to deal with him every since. But, Dorian remained as pleasant as he could with her. Little did he know – she would have forgiven him all day long, every day, even if he had abused her with his own hands… but turning on _Sam, _**that**, she could not forgive and would not let go of.

"He's just so smug with his curly hair and his 'I will forever be just some comic book nerd' look and attitude!" Mercedes said.

"He still loves you," Sam offered and sat next to her as she lied on the bed.

"And I will always love him. I would give my life for his happiness. But, I don't like him, Sam. We raised him better than that, but he bought into the L.A. culture and he betrayed you." She sniffled and asked, "Did they leave?"

"They claim that they aren't leaving."

"Why are they in Tennessee?" She asked.

"I think that there's something happening that they don't want me to know about." He shrugged his shoulders and laid down.

"So, I guess he won't be coming with us?" Whitney asked as she came out of the kitchen, followed by Sammie with a couple of mugs of tea on a platter and a few cookies. Sammie glanced around, then went directly to Sam's room, presuming that's where he had gone.

Marvel said, "I didn't expect him to. What I expect is for all of you to just understand that and leave him alone about it. And, let me reiterate that no one is to tell him that she is not there."

"Marvel, this is dangerous!" Whitney complained. "He fell in the tub because he thought she had his hands. He injured his pelvis because he thought she was there… er… with him. What if he would've thought that she was going to be hit by a car during that walk and gotten himself killed?"

"Then, they'd be back together, for real!" Marvel snapped. Then, he covered his mouth with both hands, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that… but Dad is really lonely. Most of his best friends are all gone and his _closest_ friend died beside him." He sat on the arm of the couch and said, "Sammie will stay here with him while we go. But, during our worry time, we totally forgot what our reason to be here was supposed to be."

Dorian looked at his phone and said, "Aunt Stacey's Ranch Carnival. Maybe Pops will be up to it, later. Hopefully, since the entire reason Kelsey even put it on was to cover for us this weekend."

"They love carnivals. Reminds them of when they first fell in love," Whitney said, sadly. "The rest of you ready to go?" The five of them went on their way as Marvel texted Sammie to let her know.

_Headed to the gravesite for Mom's birthday… See you when we get back to the house._


	8. Brown Eyed Girl

**8. Brown Eyed Girl**

Marvel gathered up the old flowers and such from Mercedes' grave and trashed them the previous day. Now, her grave was clean and clear for today's celebration. Dorian draped a new purple shawl across the stone, but not in such a way to cover up the words on her headstone. Whitney placed several candles strategically around the stone and Majesty lit them, trying not to cry. Her reddish brown hair was covered by a head wrap, that she kept trying to make sure did not touch the flames and her dark green eyes studied the lighter harder than was necessary. She couldn't seem to make eye contact with her siblings. This was the first of Mercedes' birthdays without them all gathering as a family with her. Last year had been so joyous, because all of her children AND grandchildren had been able to visit. Mercedes had made the comment, "Now I can die happy," and made everyone, especially Sam upset, even though she was being lighthearted. Wagner thought about that day, and that comment, with his heart threatening to break.

Wagner's short cut dirty blonde hair blew in the wind as he poured wine into flutes for each of them and sliced a small cake. Looking like an almost exact copy of his father, except with an excellent, permanent tan, he watched the older siblings preparing the area and his tears began to fall from his brown eyes. Majesty heard him sob and placed her hand on his back and rubbed, without looking up at him. Still, the gesture caused him to cry harder. Mercedes had been thirty five when he was born, and he had been the epitome of "the baby," his entire life. His siblings still tried to take care of him, to this day.

Being the most devout Christian of the Evans bunch (and a famous gospel recording artist) Whitney said, "Mama would want us to start with a prayer. Marvel?" She asked, hopefully. She and Mercedes had been praying for the two oldest Evans' for years, that they would return to their Christian roots and Whitney never missed an opportunity to test if the prayers had been answered…

"I don't really do that anymore, Whit. I haven't practiced Christianity in years. You know that." His eyes were damp as he made certain that his guitar was properly tuned.

Wagner offered, "I'll pray." The group joined hands and Wagner offered, "Dear Heavenly Father, we come today not to mourn but to celebrate a life that once was. I pray that we can just focus on the wonderful mother that you gave us for so many years and not on the fact that you took her away from us…" He shut his eyes tighter to squeeze out burning tears and finished, "And help us to be there for our Dad as he deals with this in his own way. May today be a day of joy. Mom wouldn't have wanted us to grieve today."

Directly after prayer, Marvel began to play his guitar and sing, "Brown Eyed Girl," by Van Morrison… the first song that he could remember hearing his father sing to his mother, as a child. He remembered watching the two of them dance together, singing to each other, with Sam playing the guitar. He was four and Dorian was an infant, seated on his lap, happily clapping and laughing as the older boy tried to hold on to him. And just as they did whenever Sam sang it to Mercedes, the others joined in at, "Sha la la la la la la la la la…" There was even a time that they watched their parents do a mash-up (something that they sometimes did in homage to their former glee days) with Brown Eyed Girl, sung by Sam and Coldplay's Green Eyes sung by Mercedes. Just the thought of that duet brought tears to Dorian's eyes – it was one of his favorite memories of his parents.

At the end of the song, Dorian began to sing "Wonderwall" by Oasis, and Marvel simply began to play the music to meet his voice. It was a song that Dorian felt because he never took the opportunity to tell her that no matter what he had done and things that had been said between them, she meant SO MUCH to him. He hated the fact that they had never fixed things. He nearly broke down at the gravestone. Marvel noticed that his brother wouldn't be able to complete the song for his sobs and took over the words for him, while Wagner went to comfort Dorian in an embrace, singing along. Whitney reached for Majesty's hands and they harmonized in the background, for their brothers.

When it was Whitney's turn, she simply began to talk, instead of sing, "Mama named me after her idol, and I remember being a little girl and thinking – WOW… Who is this woman who was so special that MAMA wanted to be like her? I own every Whitney Houston album there ever was, watched all kinds of documentaries with Mama, read every article. And as amazing as she was and as much as I know Mama loved her, I still couldn't see anyone better than my mama. Mama was like… Heaven-on-feet, to me. She's the reason that I love the Lord and I thank her for the genes that she gave me, in having a voice that others call anointed. When I would see how she and daddy looked at each other, I remember thinking, one day, I'll be as pretty as her. One day, I'll have a man as good as Daddy. Of course, I grew up and realized that Dad was never a _typical_ man, and finding one like him is no easy task. It takes a lot to be the kind of person he is and I remember when I realized that no man that I knew was quite as good and strong and loving as Dad… I remember becoming impressed with Mama, all over again. I remember thinking – wow… she was able to be a partner to a man this wonderful and he cherishes her, everyday. I still want to be like her. How do I live without her?" She asked, rhetorically, but then began to sing "How Do I Live."

Majesty was crying as she picked up the framed photo that had been placed on the stone and held it to her heart as she began to sing, "A Song For Mama." By that time, Dorian had pulled himself together and the group was singing, but still visibly sad. They had sang it as an opening for a dedication video that Sam made Mercedes for Mother's Day, years ago. Majesty had a red colored hair and dark, doe-like eyes (like her mother). She also was short, like Mercedes and of the rounder physique. She looked more like Mercedes than any of her siblings, even though she was much lighter that Whitney, and even lighter than Dorian and Marvel. Sometimes, she could pass for white (a white woman with big, full lips and a round nose). Currently, her hair was tied down with a colorful head scarf and she had a hanky that she generally brought with her to church to use for her tears. It was mandatory today.

Finally, Wagner began singing "When I See You Smile," by Bad English. He knew that Mercedes and Sam sang it to each other at their engagement party, and upon finding that out, he loved the song, even though he only saw that particular duet performed on video. He knew that to someone else, it might sound like a strange choice for him to sing to his mother. But, his siblings knew the power of a Mercedes Evans smile – a power that would now be dulled dramatically by the fact that it will only exist in images and memories.

Singing, cake, wine, and talking took them about two hours. After that, they returned to the house, in much better spirits and still reminiscing about their childhood, their mother and life in general. When they entered the house, Sammie, Kelsey, Sam and Mercedes were seated at the table in the family room, laughing and talking. "Where have you been?" Sam asked them. "You've missed a wonderful time. We were just talking about the upcoming Zaydyn celebration. It sounds like it'll be fun."

"Yeah, yeah – it will be," Dorian said, "Actually, I wasn't going to say anything about this. I was gonna let it be a surprise, but… we changed something else about Zaydyn: The Chronicles. We made Madison a Xetygeron… she's returning in the 60th anniversary special as an awakened sleeper cell whose mission is to destroy Zaydyn." Sam and Mercedes stared at their son, dumfounded. He continued, "When I initially had her killed, I never intended for it to be permanent. I thought that I might keep her as a memory that haunted him once he came back to himself. Recently, I've been thinking that his life just wouldn't be the same, wouldn't even be bearable unless she's really in it. And, yes – initially her mission is to kill him and she's going for it, but it'll eventually be where he helps her to fight that part of herself and trains her, like he had to try to condition himself. They'll be together again. She's alive again. I thought that might make you guys happy."

Mercedes asked, excitedly, "So, when Madison was killed, the Xetygeron had her in a surrogate body and her real identity was resurrected in a new body. Oh my! That means that all the while, she thought that she was a human to keep him grounded to his humanity, she was actually still a sleeper. So, everything that we ever knew about her was a lie, or she died at some point in time before, and was replaced, without his knowledge. Oh, the potential, Sam. You could be real creative."

"Does she look the same when she returns?" Sam asked, hoping that his character could be salvaged in some type of way, now that she was being brought back.

The son shrugged his shoulders and said, "For the most part. She's got silver hair, now and she wears one of those Xetygeron-hunter suits – black, silver and purple." Dorian rocked sideways a little and sighed, "So… what you do and Mom have to say about that?" He wondered.

Sam looked over at Mercedes, then replied, "I would be happy to just get the first print of the issue, but Mercy wants me to be involved with the development of the restructuring of the Madison character."

"Sure!" Dorian said and waved a hand. "That's not an issue, at all."

Sam and Mercedes walked up the hallway of Borderline Comics Headquarters, making comments on all of the different decorations and collector's items that Sam had put into the place. When he began to make the money to do so, he purchased all types of movie memorabilia and fan favorite merchandise. He indulged in cosplay, for a time, and attended a slew of conventions that he never had the chance to visit as a child. His children wouldn't be so deprived. The family went to at least one per year, for fun (several more because of his work.

The couple stopped at a photo of them from Halloween one year – he was Nightcrawler and she was Storm. Eleven year old Marvel was Wolverine. Seven year old Dorian was Cyclops. Six year old Whitney was Rogue and four year old Majesty was Jubilee. The couple looked at each other and said, "That's when we made Wagner!" Then, they started laughing and Sam asked, "We did _not _tell him why we named him that, right?"

Mercedes looked at him seriously and asked, "Are you kidding me? Of course not! How would it even sound, 'The night you were conceived, your dad was dressed like Nightcrawler, but we have a Kurt in our social circle, so we named you Wagner'?" They began laughing again. Then she looked at the photo again and asked, "Do we have one of these at home?"

"I'm sure that we do. I hardly ever kept any original photos here. This one's more than likely an enlarged copy. I'm trying to remember where I have any of our other Halloween or Comic-Con photos in this place. Most of them were in the hallway leading to my office and most of the rest were actually inside of the office, bordering the walls of my workspace."

"They've probably been moved around. Ask D.C." She said.

He smiled and told her, "You haven't called him that in years."

"I was waiting for him to try to do right by the man that taught him and gave him everything and more," she said and pointed further down the hallway. "I think that's the one of us Star Trekked." They came to a photo of Spock Sam, Uhura Mercedes, thirteen year old Marvel McCoy, nine year old Dorian Scotty, eight year old Whitney Nurse Chapel, six year old Majesty Yeoman Rand, and the one year old Wagner was dressed as Captain Kirk. "These bring back so many memories!" She squealed and Sam could swear that all the light in the world came from her face.

"There's a Star Wars one somewhere, too, Princess Leia." he reminded her. "Hell, there's also The Matrix…"

"I rocked that Niobi costume," Mercy said.

"Bleach…" He listed, as he remembered images of these things

She cheered, happily, "I was the BOMB Yoruichi."

"The Avengers…" He said, with an excited grin and a finger lifted in the sky.

"They weren't expecting me to be Nick Fury," she laughed.

"Oh, and of course when we were House Atreides…" Sam let out a groan and leaned against the wall for support.

"Sam?" She questioned and placed her hands on his shoulders. "What's wrong?"

"My ankles," he answered, wincing and trying to catch his breath. "They're hurting."

She patted him on the back and said, "Just, stay here. I'll go get help, okay?" He nodded and bit his lip. If he tried to sit, he might fall over. Hopefully, the wall could hold him up. Oh, God! This was painful…

When Mercedes came back, following Dorian and one of his assistants, Dorian broke into a run and called, "Pops? What happened?"

"I'm not as young as I used to be," Sam joked. His face was red for the amount of energy he'd put into keeping himself from falling and trying to last through the terrible pain he felt in both of his ankles.

Dorian nodded and said, "I know that you hate for people to help you with stuff, but I'm gonna pick you up, okay? I'm gonna place you in a seat so you don't hurt yourself, walking." Without Sam's permission, Dorian gently hoisted him off of his feet and carried him to the nearest chair that he could find. "I'm gonna have my assistant try to find you a scooter. Seeing you like that scared the hell out of me."

Sam sniffled and covered his mouth with one of his hands. "I'm so embarrassed."

Dorian kneeled in front of his father and said, "Hey, hey… don't be embarrassed. This is nothing to be embarrassed about. Your body isn't what it used to be and you have some pain. There is nothing wrong with your own son helping you, Pops." He slapped him on the arm and smiled a smile like his mother's and said, "let me see about getting you that scooter." After moments, he was off again, talking to his assistant. "I don't care how you have to do it – the best and most comfortable one that you can find and while you're at it, call my niece for his medicine and get her to contact his doctor." He shivered and admitted, "I am SO glad that I was coming this way when I was!" He covered his heart with his hand and simply shook his head at the perfect timing.

Sam raced Sammie's son, Avery, at the park. Sam was on his scooter and Avery was on his bicycle. Mercedes was seated on Sam's lap, screaming "Wooo!" with her arms raised and Sammie sat on a swing, next to her husband. It was the first time that she had done something with him in a long time, but he was grateful just to be able to be there for her. Sammie glanced at her honey, Adam, who wasn't really considered that attractive to other people, but he was the world, to her, with his stocky body, deep red hair and head to toe freckles. He had been a child star who grew up to not be nearly as well received as he had as a cute little ginger, but she was a fangirl, first and when she met him in person, fell for him, deeply. Though, he now was a Southern Baptist preacher who taught seminars and wrote books. Samara reached over and squeezed his hand, "Thank you for coming with us," she said.

"I _want _to spend time with you, Samara. You make it difficult, sometimes. Every since Meemaw Cedes died, you've been very distant." He looked very sad to admit that. He had been trying extremely hard not to complain, knowing that her grandmother meant the world to her. She was even closer to Mercedes than she had been to her own mother. (By that time, Mercedes did not have to work or really have any other musical goals and only sang and recorded for enjoyment, so she had much more time than Sammie's mother, who was still modeling when the girl was growing up).

Sammie offered, "I promise, I'll do better. I'm working on it. I couldn't lose you, too." She said and reached for his hand.

"You wouldn't," he promised her.

Suddenly, her head snapped back to Sam and Avery. "Did you hear that?" She asked and got up off of the swing.

"Hear what?" Adam asked.

"Avery talking to Meemaw…" she said and stared at the boy, lifting something to the sky and talking, very animatedly to nothing there. She had not gotten around to explaining Meemaw's absence to him. She had only told him that Meemaw was gone to another place and that he would see her again, someday. She barely knew how to deal with the death, herself. She wasn't going to try to make her five year old try to deal with it, too. "Avery's… he's talking to Meemaw…"

"Sammie, Avery's five. Grandpa Sam probably told him that Meemaw's there and as a five year old child, Avery responded the same way that he would if they were playing Cowboys and Indians." She did not look his way. She was too busy looking at her son interacting with invisible Mercedes. "Samara, don't make yourself crazy over this. Your grandmother is not actually here. You don't even believe in the possibility. If she's anywhere, she's in Heaven, watching them play."

Sammie blinked her eyes and laughed at herself. "Let's take them out for ice cream."

Sam settled himself on his chair and Avery went to sit on his lap. "Avery – don't sit in Great-granddaddy's lap," Sammie tried, but Sam waved her off.

"We're having ourselves a boy's night out. Mercy insists that he sleeps here tonight. You'll be back in the morning, anyway. And, the nurse will be here before you even make it back."

He tickled the boy who, laughed, kicked his feet and cried, 'Make him stop, Meemaw Cedes!"

Sam stopped and said, "Your granny saved you this time."

"G.G. Sam, can we listen to some of Meemaw's songs?" the boy asked.

"Yes, we sure can!" Sam cheered, delighted.

Sammie offered, "I'll put something on."

"No need, Mommy. Meemaw says that she'll do a live performance," Avery told her, with bright, wide brown eyes. He said it like it was the truest thing in the world, shut his eyes and added, "I love Meemaw's voice."

"Me too, Boy," Sam said and hugged his great grandson tighter as they both listened to Mercedes sing.

Sammie kissed both of them on the head and glanced around the room. "See you tomorrow, Meemaw Cedes," she said. Even though she did not see the woman waved her little fingers at her, while not missing a breath on her song. But, Sam did. Sam certainly did.

_ She wore a dazzling silver gown, with purple accents in her jewelry and purple undertones in her hair. Her album "With a Purple Passion" was nominated for Best R&B Album, her song "How You Do This To Me" was nominated for Best R&B Song, and Mercedes Jones was nominated for Best New Artist. Sam Evans accompanied his fiancée on the red carpet and looked sharper than she had ever seen him, ever... and she knew that she had seen him pretty handsome, a time or two in the past. "Sam Evans! You are looking dashing tonight. What designer are you wearing?"_

"_Askin' the wrong guy. I just put on whatever she pointed to." He nudged his head at Mercedes, with a grin. "If I look worth anything, this one's totally responsible."_

_The reporter moved on, "Oh, and Mercedes Jones! Your gown is smashing."_

_Sam snickered and said, "I'm dashing and she's smashing. Guess that means we match." He rocked back and forth on his heels as Mercedes, laughed lightly at his joke, then went into telling the red carpet reporter both of their designers and answering a few questions about her nominations for the night, and a performance. _

_ On their way in, she caught Sam's arm and used him to help her keep her balance. "I look nervous?"_

"_You looked completely smooth, Babe. If I didn't know you, I would've sworn that you've done this a dozen times," he bragged. She held on to her handbag so tightly that the color faded from her knuckles. "Mercedes, you are leaving here with a Grammy, Baby. Try to relax." She took another deep breath and nodded her head, but she did not feel the least bit more confident. This insecurity was new. She had never been so nervous and unsure of herself, before. Tonight could make her career, or she could become the star that almost was._

"_I need a drink!" She said and dug her hand deeply into the rock that was Sam's arm, anxiety flowing through her blood. "No, no… I don't. Oh, Sam!" He pulled her close to himself and in her ear whispered a little prayer, for her nerves and encouraged her. Then, he kissed her on her temple and they went to find their seats._

_ When Mercedes was announced as the winner of her first Grammy nomination, she nearly fell out of her seat! Sam jumped up and cheered, "I knew you had this, Baby!" He screamed and picked her up and lifted her off of the ground in a hug, then gave her a double high five, that she absently was a part of, still in shock and awe. He escorted her to the stage, not even caring if that was how it was done, or not. He proudly brought her to the steps then watched her intently as she confidently, but excitedly approached the presenters. "I love you," she told both of them, then took it to the mic._

"_Oh my God. I am so amazed to have won this award. I admire and love every artist in that category and I am so honored to be up here. This is a dream of mine. I thank God for this award and for the support of my fans. Sam Evans, thank God for you. You always believed in me, this is for US!" She lifted the award towards him, then quickly thanked the rest of the people that she needed to, quickly. When she was led away from the stage, Sam met her backstage as someone tried to explain to him that there was a certain method to how winners took the stage and left the stage._

_ By the time she won her second award of the night, she was still reeling from the first, but just as grateful and even more thankful, "I honestly didn't have one speech perfected, and I certainly didn't prepare three. Just, thank you all… so much…" When she pulled in Best New Artist, she literally felt that she might die of joy. She came to the stage and said, "Another win for my fiance and I! He's always believed in me and he never doubted that I would be here someday. Sam, I just want to let you know, now that we've won these – I'm ready when you are." She smiled when she saw him jump up from his seat and applaud her, mightily. "Thank all of you for this, again." She waved her hands in the air and said, "Praise!"_

_ She and her entourage (old Glee club friends and Unique) visited several parties that night. Quinn and Blake were in town, as well. There were so many of the people that she loved there for this celebration, with her, and she decided to stay out all night, until nearly sunrise. The entire time, there was never a dull moment, but as soon as she and Sam were home, she passed out and slept well into the next day._

_ Sam woke up a few hours after he had gone to sleep and threw together a little [arty of his own. Finn and Rachel couldn't make it this trip, and though Santana would've loved to, she had a lot going on, as well. Matt didn't come either, but that was to be expected – he wasn't as close to all of them as some of the others. Mercedes woke up to the sound of music and laughter in one of the other rooms. That was her queue to wake up and get dressed. She washed up and accessorized, though she threw on some house lounging threads._

_ When she entered the room, everyone immediately broke into, "She's a jolly good fellow." She allowed them to complete the entire thing, then lifted her eyebrows and jokingly asked, "I'm a three time Grammy winner, and you guys vote on she's a jolly good fellow?"_

_Sam told her, "I told them 'Bad Mamma Jamma' and Lauren was attached to 'Brick House.'"_

_Mercedes nodded and said, "Sounds great – improvise a mash up. I'll leave the room and come back." She turned her back to leave, then turned right back around, laughing._

_Sam smiled at her and said, "You have no idea what you've just done, Miss Jones."_

"_What?" She seriously asked._

"_Whenever we enter the reception, trust that it'll be done to a Bad Mamma Jamma/Brick House mash up," and he lifted his red solo cup to her and took a drink. Now, Mercedes laughed and fully came into the room to kiss him hello and to mingle with all of her friends who could make it._

Avery fell to sleep on his great grandfather, and the old man, though he was a little uncomfortable and _knew _that his body would hate him infinitesimally in the morning, just remained where he was, with the little guy in his arms. This felt different than when he held Mercedes, and for the moment, it was something that he felt he needed.


	9. You Don't Know You're Beautiful

**9. You Don't Know You're Beautiful**

Whitney left the beauty salon, fully made up and drove to the family house. She didn't look at all like a fifty year old woman, and she knew it. But, none of her siblings really looked their age, except for maybe Dorian. Jones aged well, and though she had been married and widowed, remarried and divorced (causing a huge scandal in the gospel community with famous evangelist ex husband), Whitney had inherited all manner of diva from her mother and not much stress tarnished her appearance. She came down the path the led to the house, and stopped her car right in the front of the steps leading to the front door. When she got out of the car, she took off her sunshades before ringing the doorbell. Sammie opened it and hugged her in greeting, "Hey, Aunt Whitney."

"Hey, Precious. God bless you," Whitney greeted as she entered the place. "Where is your grandfather?" She asked.

"Resting in his room. The last couple of weeks, he's done a bit much, I'm afraid," Sammie answered as she reached for her purse. "Normally, I wouldn't think of leaving him on the weekend, but Adam has a family life conference to attend and we have to be there with him…"

"I understand. Samara, Suga – you have to try to remember that you have a life and a family outside of Daddy, and we haven't forgotten that. Enjoy your trip. Where are you headed?"

Sammie smiled brightly and said, "Ohio. This conference is at Pastor Hart's church." She gave her aunt another hug and went on her way. Whitney sighed and set her purse down. She had not had the chance to really be around the house much. She owned a home in Tennessee, but travelled a lot, still. Her first order of business was to look in on her father to see if he was alright. He was sound asleep and she decided to go into the room and watch him for a while and some part of her knew that he was probably dreaming about her mother.

_Mercedes was curled up in a ball, wearing her bathrobe and holding a glass of wine. She was not much for private drinking, so Sam stared at her for a moment before he approached her. Whatever was wrong with her, he just hoped that it wasn't his fault. "Hey!" He cheered, when he entered the room. She looked at him and forced a smile. So, it wasn't his fault. If so, she would have simply tore into him. "You alright, Babe?" Of course, she wasn't, but he wanted her to tell him._

"_Have you been on your website since the Grammies?" She asked._

"_Not really." He sat next to her on the couch and looked over her shoulder to see what was getting her down. "Been working on that movie. Hopefully soon, we get to wrap everything up."_

"_Its pages and pages of these comments," she said and handed her laptop to him. Then, she got up and headed for the bedroom._

_Sam read: Why are Sam and Mercedes still going forward with their sham of a relationship? Everyone knows that it's just a publicity stunt. Why the hell would he want someone like that?_

_Maybe she got pregnant and he felt obligated. He is a Southern gentleman, so he probably has a belief system like that._

_Yeah, but why would he even touch her in the first place? I call shenaningans. Have you ever seen old photos of Sam's old high school girlfriend? Or even the women at the club he worked at? Plus, rumor has it that he's the number one crush of the leading lady in the movie he's currently working on as a producer. She's an A+ to Mercedes Jones' F - .With options like that, would he really choose this? (Posts a big photo of Mercedes sweating on stage. Lol…_

_He slammed the damned thing shut and set it down, then went to find her. She was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Presently, he said, "I'm sure it's just a bunch of ignorant kids. They're rude and I'll be addressing every single post there, personally." He sat near her feet and she pulled them to herself, but he reached out and grabbed them and brought them to his lap to massage them. _

"_They're not saying anything any differently from the adult critics. There was a column about why I should not have won ONE SINGLE GRAMMY and the whole basis of the thing was that I am a bad influence for young girls because I'm fat and I'm showing them that it's alright to be this way." She reached for her wine and said, "Like it **isn't**."_

"_Who the hell wrote that?" He asked, turning a shade of red._

"_That's not really the point, Sam. Have you seen the video of you while you were working at Vanity 9? They're pretty **hot**. I know that when you perform, you're just performing, but when they have video of some catty cage girl dancing around you and you sexy strumming your guitar…" She sat up and pulled her feet to herself, again. "It was one thing when a couple of jealous girls here and there were harping on why I don't deserve to be with someone who looks like you, but when people all over the world start in on me, for the way I look…"_

"_You're absolutely beautiful."_

"_In **your** eyes. But, I'm in the public eye, now. I'll have to face everyone's opinions for the rest of my career. They…" she shook her head, "They focus on all the negative. There were some people who jumped to my defense and listed why they love me. I was shocked to see that hate on your page. I thought that your fans liked me."_

"_My fans love you. These people are clearly trolls. They don't belong in my world and they're gonna get a piece of my mind. You'd best believe it. Come here." He patted his lap and waited for her to crawl to him so that he could pull her onto his lap and squeeze her. He rubbed her back and held her close and began to sing to her, "Baby you're my everything. You're all I ever wanted. We can do it real big, bigger than we've ever done it…"_

_She started laughing and sat up to look at him with his crooked smile. "**You** are the effing best, Sam."_

"_On a serious note, Mercedes… you aren't just beautiful in my eyes. You are three time Grammy winner Miss Mercedes Jones. You earned that title. You've earned your praise. Remember when you said 'Ready when you are'? I'm ready. Let's just go do it. Let's go get married, already."_

"_Like how soon?" She asked. _

"_Like, let's get up and go. We can elope. That seems easier than the whole planning thing. Between you, Tina, Kurt, Unique and Quinn – planning is driving me crazy, anyway. Remember when we were carefree enough to throw together a prom date on a budget a week before the time? Let's just go to Vegas. We could leave tonight." He said, brightly. He got up and said, "Puck and Unique could be witnesses, as they're already out here."_

"_Sam!" Mercedes said and stared at him. He looked at her, as well. "I never said yes to this. We can't just run off and get married. I have to have a wedding, a fancy, diva/princess dress, all of friends and family there…" She stared at his heartbroken face and said, "We've waited all this time, why rush now?"_

"_You answered your own question. I have been waiting on you to marry me now for five years, and we've been engaged now for two years. You won your Grammies weeks ago. I don't understand why you didn't have everything set in order to get married the next day, as long as you've had to plan everything."_

_Mercedes sighed and laid down again, pulling her legs close to her, "Sam, I just won the Grammies TWO weeks ago, and so far – Finn isn't cleared for a leave any time soon."_

"_He's not in the wedding, and it wouldn't be the first thing that he's missed since being in the army," Sam retorted, but she kept going._

"_Rachel is on Broadway…"_

"_And probably wouldn't want to come without Finn, anyway," he said._

"_Quinn has no more free time until the semester is over…" He just groaned and she said, "But, by the end of May, I promise. I promise we'll do it by the end of May." She said and reached for his hands. "I am not trying to get out of this, Sam. I just want it to be perfect. You made my junior and senior proms perfect, and after everything, I want my fairytale wedding, okay?" He nodded and rested his head against her belly._

"_I just want you to be my wife. I don't care about the details, as long as at the end of the day, you are Mrs. Sam Evans," he said._

"_Oh…" she started. He quickly sat up and looked at her. "Uh… I don't know about _being _Mrs. Evans, Sam. I'm just now becoming the Miss Jones that I've always seen for myself."_

"_You don't want to take my name?" He asked, surprised and a little bit hurt._

"_Not so soon," she said. "I want to be Mercedes Jones, superstar, and YES, wife of Sam Evans… but you know that you and I have always had our own separate identities. That's one of our best qualities." He still looked a little sad, but he nodded and laid back down on his love pillow. "And after about ten years, we'll renew vows and I'll change my name, and if I release any albums after that, I'll just be Mercedes. By that time, they ought to just know who Mercedes is," she mused. He kissed her on the belly and squeezed her tightly._

Whitney was reading a magazine when Sam awoke. She set it on the nightstand, next to her mother's photograph and she cheered, "Hey, Daddy! You sure stayed sleep for a long time. I was beginning to worry. I want to take you shopping today. You know it's Friday, so Mamma's with Kelsey. You need to get spruced up, too."

Sam's eyes were wide and his heart was racing, "I didn't expect to see you here," he said.

"I know. I don't come to visit like I should. But, I am in town for a good little while and Sammie had to go out of town to a conference at Pastor Joe's church. So, I'm here for the weekend. Need me to get your scooter?" Whitney asked. Sam winced. Why the hell did she talk so loud? Nothing was wrong with his damned hearing! "I'll get it for you, then we can go have some brunch. You slept through breakfast…"

"Whitney… My hearing is just fine," he said and struggled to get up. When he sat up, he said, "And I don't like people in here when I wake up. I don't like to start out with pointless talks or loud noises. I get up and do my thing, and when I'm ready to face everyone else, I leave this room," he told her.

"Yes, Sir. I'm sorry, Daddy." She got up and made her way out of his room. She heard some shuffling, then she heard the scooter.

Whitney and Sam were never as close as either of them would have liked. They loved each other, dearly and deeply – but there was something that always kept them at arm's length with each other – and it occurred sometime during her adolescence, though he couldn't place his finger on what it was. Over the years, Whitney tried to make amends for being so angry with him as a child, but it was like they simply continued to butt heads. When he came out of the bedroom, he said, "I don't want to go shopping if I have to ride that thing all over the store. I can walk."

"Don't be stubborn, Daddy. You'll hurt yourself," she said, not meaning for it to sound so condescending, but he took a seat on the couch and she knew that he had decided that he would not be going anywhere.

"Wanna watch the wedding?" He asked.

"What wedding?" She wondered as she took her seat, next to him.

"Me and your idol," he said. "I was gonna watch it last night, and got too tired." He reached for the remote control and Whitney smiled and kicked off her shoes. Maybe they might go shopping tomorrow.

"You want to order some brunch for delivery, before I start it?" He asked.

"That's a good idea. Where should I order from?" She asked.

"I thought you had some place in mind when you suggested brunch. You could order from the diner up the road," he said.

"Give me a moment. Do NOT begin it without me," she said and scrambled to find her purse, so that she could retrieve her phone.

_ Sam smirked at Mercedes, from the other side of the camera, trying to fight off a laugh. She glared at him. She didn't think it was funny. She didn't find this funny at all. "So…" he said, "Why don't you tell our son or daughter how you were about to try to postpone our wedding that you promised me at the end of May when you found out that he or she is going to come in nine months, whether you become my wife, or not?" She frowned and turned all the way around._

_He turned the camera on himself and said, "I've got her now! She's mine!" And he laughed, maniacally. Mercedes tried not to laugh. She was angry with herself. Sam stopped buying condoms the day that they got engaged, and she got on birth control. The shot was easiest for her, because it lasted for several months… somewhere the hell along the way, she missed that damned shot, and now – even though she wanted to try to hold off the wedding until she could wrap up this sophomore album… she did NOT want to be having babies out of wedlock. _

_She'd been sick a few days and unable to properly sing, so she went to the doctor. Sam brought his damned camera, and kept saying, "I'm pretty sure you're preggers, Mercy." He wanted to catch the diagnosis on film, and broke out into a roar of laughter when the doctor confirmed his theory. Mercedes stared at the camera, dumfounded. The doctor also reminded her that she had been alerted about coming in to take her shot, and she cancelled the appointment, because she would be out of town… and never rescheduled. Winning Grammies and working on another album ate most of her concentration._

_So, by the time they got married, she was about two and a half months pregnant with Marvel. That night, Sam laid his head on her belly, again and said, "Hey, Marvel. It's your Dad."_

"_Marvel?" She asked, staring at him._

"_Yes. It's awesome. It's unisex. It's what both of us are gonna do when we meet him or her…" He rubbed a circle on her womb and said thoughtfully, "And I don't want to say 'it' or keep repeating he/she, him/her." She still stared at him. "And it starts with an 'M,' like Mercedes," he added and poked her in the belly button. "Do you like it?"_

_She chuckled and said, "I actually do… but you just want to name our baby after your favorite comic book publisher."_

"_**I do**, but I gave you reasons that should sit well with you! Marvel – doesn't that sound like the kid of a diva? Of an icon?"_

"_Marvel Evans," she said, then shrugged her shoulders, "We'll have the same initials." Sam froze and looked up at her. "Come hug my neck, Sam. My hormones are a mess!" He rushed to hold her and she cried, "No wonder I was so bothered by those bitches on your site. Oh my God! Sam, I've drank wine with this child!"_

"_It's ok. Marvel's fine. The doctor said so, and you have plenty of time to make sure Marvel's healthy." He squeezed her and kissed the side of her head. _

"_You are running with that name, aren't you?" She asked._

"_Yup, and you're gonna run with me. You'll walk with me. Whatever it takes. Mercedes, this is a sign from God that we're meant to be together. You were going to push our wedding back, and suddenly realize that you're pregnant? Not that pregnancy means destiny. I mean, with Puck and Quinn, it meant disaster. But **this **time, I **know **it's a cosign from God that you need to marry me as soon as possible." She laughed and sighed as she intertwined her fingers with his. "So, by the end of May, I expect to see another ring on this beautiful little hand that I love holding so much."_


	10. Meet Me At The Altar

**10. Meet Me At The Altar**

Mercedes did not want a white dress, but at the same time, she wanted to be sort of traditional. So the dress was for the most part a diamond white color, but had crystal accents that sparkled purple and light blue, and a broad stroke of dark purple around her midsection and down her entire cascading train. Kurt wore a suit that matched it as closely as humanly possible and Unique's dress was a long, with a train, and matched the purple in it.

Unique's hair was up in an elegant style and Kurt wore an elegant hat. They both wer slaving over her, to be sure that everything was perfect, which was hard, because, "This bitch is crying again!" Unique fussed. "I cannot do this with you, Sister!"

Kurt fussed back, "You would be crying too if on a day as special as this, the dominating voice in the room is none other than – You, Unique. Your voice is irritating everyone, right now. Just, shut up." He labored with Mercedes' make up again and told her, "You are beautiful, Sweetie, but we need to keep your face in order. I know how stressful this is. Do you remember how much of a mess I was?"

"Your wedding was much smaller and leading up to it – there weren't death threats posted about you on the Internet," Mercedes cried.

Quinn, in her short, dark purple dress asked, "Do you need us to pray for you?"

Unique and Kurt both said, "No," at the same time Mercedes said, "Yes." Kurt sighed and shrugged. "It's your day, Cedes."

She asked, "Could you leave me with Quinn for a moment?" When it was the two of them, Mercedes took her friends hands and said, "God, we've been through a lot together. Thank you for letting Beth be the flower girl."

"No problem," Quinn said.

"I'm pregnant," Mercedes blubbered.

"I know," Quinn said. She laughed and hugged her tightly.

Mercedes shook her head and said, "My nerves are bad, they are… but my damned hormones are driving me nuts!" Quinn held her friend and began to pray with her.

Kurt entered the guys' dressing room, where Tina was making everyone pose for various photos and cheering about how she would be showing these to her kids someday, "I knew the famous Sam Evans and Mercedes Jones, and your dad and I were both in their wedding!"

"Uh…I'm pretty sure that Mike is gonna be just as famous as me, probably more in the next couple of years," Sam commented. Kurt began to stalk the room, circling all of them to make sure that they were all in their perfect form…

"Oh, dear Lord, Sam!" He snapped, which startled the groom. Kurt rushed to him and began to wipe, maniacally at something on his collar that Sam couldn't even see. "You have on cherry chapstick and you obviously put it on before your coat, or did something to brush against your coat. Do you know what kind of eye our diva has? She is going to spot that the moment Marvin and she enters the sanctuary. Unique!" He called and the maid of honor hustled over with a wet wipe. "Each of you line up," Kurt said.

They were lined up, shoulder to shoulder, military style as Kurt inspected them. "Tina, fix your boyfriend's tie. Blaine, fix your boutonniere. Puck… I am actually beyond impressed that I find no fault in you, whatsoever." He stopped at Joe and shook his head, "Tina, we need some type of floral garnish for this hair…" Quinn peeked inside and called for Kurt. "Not now, Quinn. We allowed the boys to be left unattended and they've mussed themselves…"

"I need it to be now," Quinn said. Kurt sighed and headed her way, with Sam behind him. Quinn stopped him with a hand and said, "Not you, Sir. Can't see her before the wedding."

"Is she alright?" He asked, concerned.

"_Everyone _is fine," Quinn told him. He nodded. Quinn knew. He expected Mercedes to tell Quinn, sooner.

Kurt came into Mercedes' dressing room and saw Christina and Mary trying to get her out of the dress. "Thank God, Kurt! Help us."

"Help you take the dress off of her?" He asked the mother of the bride and groom.

"If you don't it'll be covered in piss, very soon," Mercedes threatened, now sick of the damned thing.

"For God's sakes, Cedes," he said and rushed to assist. "Am I the only person who is obsessively compulsively high-strung about today? You hold your pee, on today, Mercedes." He fussed, pulling her out of the dress.

She rushed into the bathroom in her purple undergarments, corset, etc and screamed, "Not when you're me, okay?"

Kurt checked his watch and said, "We're not going to be able to begin on time. Is this her way of creating a diva atmosphere for her wedding? The longer we wait, the harder it will be to keep those guys looking handsome and neat."

"Everyone will be looking and Mercedes and Sam," Quinn commented.

"Well, let's hope they don't look too hard at Sam, because he's bathing in chapstick in that other room. We need to act, immediately." Mercedes came out of the bathroom, and Kurt mused, "Cedes, you've lost some weight, but your breasts look ridiculously bigger." Kurt and the two moms struggled to get Mercedes back into the dress…

Sam waited at the altar with his dad next to him. The two of them had been like partners when the Evans family was in a hard time, and he wanted his father right there to help him not fall apart as he made official the beginning of his family. Kurt hummed the song playing and directed, "Light blue team, go." Stevie and Stacey entered together, and parted ways at the altar. Tina and Mike, did the same. Then, Mercedes brother, and Quinn. "And now my lavender team," Kurt said. Mercedes' other brother and Santana went in. Blaine smiled at Brittany and escorted her inside. Kurt felt like he might have a panic attack. "And now, it's us team royal purple, look alive." Unique pushed Artie's chair up the aisle and he rolled himself to the Groom's side. Puck latched his arm into Kurt's and they marched up the aisle and separated at the front, as well.

When everyone stood for the bride, Mercedes put on her brightest smile and came out on her father's arm. The tears wanted to pour out, but she was trying to at least give the cameras her walk as the perfect time for all of the fabulous that was Mercedes Jones. Her father-in-law to be destroyed that for her when she made it to the altar and he cheered at her father, "Finally official, Doc!" Then, the two men slammed their palms together and Marvin said, "Praise," Mercedes nearly collapsed as that interaction made her cry. It meant more to her than the candle lighting that the wives did at the start of the processional.

Sam collected her from her father, who patted him on the back. Marvin and Dwight hugged and Marvin went to his seat, wishing he had himself a bullhorn, because he was about to enjoy this – his baby girl FINALLY getting out of that bondage of living in sin. When he sat next to Christina, he noticed that her shoes were off. Yessuh! This wedding was about to go down!

Joe Hart, the officiating minister was on his first wedding ceremony. He began this church recently, and Sam and Mercedes decided to get married there, because they wanted to help him out and because he was a good friend from high school. He was not really an ON FIRE preacher, but he didn't have to be, because nearly every time he mentioned God, Marvin Jones yelled, "Alright!" or "Yeah!" and anytime he took an excerpt from the Bible, "That Word! That Word!" Sam bit his lips, trying not to laugh at Joe's somewhat confused face. He remembered being taken totally by surprise the first time he visited Mercedes church as to the amount of people who yelled out words and phrases throughout the service.

However, Joe soon realized that this was positive encouragement, and it made him ease up and get more excited about everything. Mercedes looked at Sam and asked through smiling teeth, "Did Marvin and Christina Jones just turn our wedding into church?"

"Marvin and Christina turned our wedding into CHUCH," Sam corrected and laughed, lightly. He was chewing on gum and Mercedes had only just shook her head at that fact. My man and his gum… and his chapstick. She watched his lips eagerly as he smiled at her, lovingly.

"Sam, I wanted to write you words that sounded like poetry and recite them to you, straight from my heart with all this love and emotion that I feel for you inside, but I think that we all know that I emote the best when I sing," Mercedes said to begin her vows.

She elected to sing a medley, "I just want you close. Where you can stay forever. You can be sure that it'll only get better. You and me together through the days and nights. I aint worried cause, everything's gonna be alright. People keep talking. They could say what they like. But all I know is everything's gonna be alright. No one, no one, no one – can get in the way of what I'm feeling. No one, no one, noe one – can get in the way of what I feel for you…

For you, I share the cup of love that overflows and anyone who knows us knows that I would change all thoughts I have, for you there is no high or low or in between of my heart that you haven't seen. Cause I share all I have and am. Nothing I say is hard to understand. And all I feel, I feel deeper, still. And always will. All this love is for you…

All this love is waiting for you, my baby. My Darling. All this love is waiting for you.. Oh, I love how you make me feel this way My love is getting stronger every day And after all I went and put myself through I found that all I really needed was you…

Because nothing compares, Nothing compares to you…

You… (The bridal party began singing background "The way you walk, the way you talk. The way you say my name, your smile) Baby, you… (The way you move me, the way you soothe me, the way you sleep softly through the night) Baby, YOU…. (Every morning you rise and open your eyes, I just want to be there with you) I just want to be yours, from this day forth… Mercedes belted the last note out and smiled at her crying groom, with her own tears in her eyes. His best man had to grab his shoulder to keep him from stealing a kiss. Sam squeezed her hands and tried to catch his breath that she had just taken away.

Joe shook his head in amazement at Mercedes, then cleared his throat and looked at Sam, "And now, the groom…"

Sam put a hand over his heart and took a deep breath, then reached towards his father. Dwight handed him the paper that had been kept in a Star Wars cigarette holder that he never used (because he wasn't a smoker). Sam was still crying, though he didn't want to look like a bawling baby. Marvin Jones did not help when he yell, "It's alright! Take your time, Son. That's my son!" Sam exhaled again and shook his head to shake off some of the feels tearing him up.

"I feel a little mediocre, now," he said. "I can't sing like that. That's why she brings home the Grammies and I draw all day." The guests laughed a little. Sam looked at his paper, then shook his head and passed it back to his father. "I don't need notes to know what I want to say to you. Mercedes, I honestly feel like I wasted a lot of affections and dedication to other girls before you, but I know that for the rest of my life, I'll be spending my time giving all of myself to you. If I could figure out a way to actually become a _part _of you so that nothing could ever separate us – life, death, time, space – I would fight for it. I was willing to do anything to get you back when we were in school, and now, I would be willing to do anything to keep you. I will do everything to make you happy and to have and hold you for the rest of my life…" He reached towards his dad and did grabby hands to him.

Dwight's face totally matched one of his son's many confused and awkward expressions as he handed him the note that he had just dismissed. Sam looked at it, then chuckled and handed it to Mercedes, "Hold on to that, Babe." He spoke from the side of his mouth and said, "The ring dad. It's ring time. This has taken long enough." He smiled at his bride and raised both eyebrows. She simply pursed her lips in a smile as she handed her cascading bouquet to Unique and Kurt gave her Sam's ring. Dwight gasped and felt around, which caused Mercedes and Sam both to look at him with wide eyes. "It's in the top right pocket!" Marvin yelled out. Dwight checked and smiled and fist pumped the air as he handed his son the ring. Mercedes laughed. God, she loved the Evans… and she was becoming one.

Joe had the two of them repeat the traditional lines of "With this ring…" then, they were allowed to light their unity candle and Mercedes looked out to see Christina comforting a crying Mary, who was fanning herself. When Joe permitted the couple to kiss, the kiss was chaste. The two of them sometimes enjoyed those more than the passionate ones. But, she hardly had a chance to relish in the sweetness of it, because as soon as the kiss ended her man, her _husband, _lifted her hand into the sky and busted out a body roll. Then, she hardly had a chance to laugh properly at him, because the organ player broke into song and both of her parents began a praise break, as Joe introduced the couple as man and wife.

Then, Sam's happy self fled the altar to rush to his in-laws on the front row and begin to happy dance with them and egg his parents to do so as well. Mercedes laughed joyously, and did not see Kurt's face, or hear him comment, "This man never fails to completely make a spectacle out of things that are supposed to be elegant and classy. Yes, holy ghost dance – that's precisely what it says in the program, not recessional at all.." After Christian had danced herself out of her fancy purple church hat, Sam rushed back to Mercedes and the music began for the recessional. He escorted her down the aisle and the other members of the party followed, in order.

When they reached the foyer, while others were about to leave and the party was supposed to go back for photos, Mercedes said, "I have to pee, again." Kurt sucked his teeth, but gave chase when she took off running, with Quinn holding her hand. Quinn called, "Ladies, ladies, ladies… emergency!" Tina and Unique began running, too.

_ When Sam and Mercedes got out of their limousine and entered the hall in which their reception was being held, Mercedes broke into a fit of laughter when she heard the Bad Mamma Jamma music playing. She saw Artie with a microphone and thought she might about die. "Look at her!" He called out, then Lauren, Puck and Santana began singing, "She's a bad mamma jamma. Just as fine as she can be…" Sam danced into the room, pulling his new wife (who he had been making out with, repeating to her that she was his wife, as though it had to sink in, the entire ride)into the room with him. _

_ When it was chorus time, Puck broke into, "Oh, she's a Brick House" While Santana and Lauren were singing, "She's built. She's stacked. Got the curves the men like…" And Artie was still leading Bad Mamma Jamma. The next verse was one from Brick House, then the mash up chorus repeated, and finally, "Shake it down, shake it down now…" and of course, another body roll op for Sam!_

_ For safety purposes, they had to make a guest list and have security enforced. Inside, it was old Glee members and relatives, mostly. More of their career related friends and associates were present at the reception than at the wedding, but it didn't matter. Marvin and Dwight presented a joint toast, commending each other's parenting and praising each others kids, bragging on their friendship and brotherhood that they had their kids to thank. Christina yelled out, "Maybe **you two **should've gotten married today!" As everyone laughed at the comment, Mary and she high fived, then while Mary flipped her hair with her hand in sass, Christina pushed up on the back of her own hair twice in mock fixing it tone. Mercedes shook her head, glad that not only did she love her in-laws, but her parents did, too._

_There was an open bar, and after the first dance, cake cutting, bouquet toss (that Tina caught), garter toss that Brittany caught and wore as a headband, and all of the other things, Sam opened the microphone to friends and family, while the band played on. People performed, gave speeches, recited poems, quotes, whatever. Mercedes and her friends kept themselves on the dance floor as much as possible, and Sam was generally right in their midst. "Y'all can't make me leave the circle no more," he taunted. "This is my wife, now." At some point in time, Mercedes' brothers started a Soul Train line and everyone danced right up the thing. _

Whitney laughed at Pastor Joe, jamming down the Soul Train line and said, "He always was fun." She looked at her dad, but he had drifted back off to sleep. Was it normal for him to sleep so much? She stopped the disc and got up to put away their leftovers.

_ Wedding night, Mercedes was so exhausted by the time that they made it to the Jones house, she wanted nothing more but to go to sleep. Sam was pretty tired himself, but hell – never too tired not to try to get him some, and now, he was especially excited, because he could say that he made love to his wife, for the first time. He loved the way that the word sounded coming out of him. He may never say her name, again. But, as he helped Mercedes out of the dress, even though she looked like a goddess, with her body going through the pregnancy changes, her skin glowing, her breasts even plumper – which he didn't even think would happen with ones that started out her typical size, and her body toning some with the weight that she was losing in places other than the not recognizable yet baby bump; Sam knew that his diva wouldn't be able to handle him tonight._

_ He pulled her unto his lap, in the bed, pressed her to his body and stroked her back until she fell asleep… which was not long after they went to bed. Eventually, he set her aside and indulged in watching her sleep and filming her for a bit with his phone. He even took a few photos. He set his phone down, got undressed and snuggled closely to her. She'd better be glad she was pregnant and he knew that made her extra tired… because those bridal undergarments.. Ugh, he grunted and rested his head on her belly, "You better be glad Daddy loves you, Marvel."_


	11. That's My Mama

**11. That's My Mama**

_ Sam wrapped up the production of his current movie about two months after the wedding. By that time, Mercedes was showing and in the studio less, because of restrictions she made for herself in order to ensure that Marvel would be safe and healthy. She was also making certain to spend more time with Sam. For one thing, her hormones made her extremely volatile. She never thought that she would ever be such an emotional thing and being away from Sam for too long became disconcerting. So, she made his business trips with him and any event and even on budgeted time, her sophomore album, 'Is That She?' was completed. _

_ She spent her pregnancy "break" being featured on and performing on different talk shows, entertainment events, and radio programs. "This is how I housewife," she told a reporter who asked her if now that she was going to be a mother, did Sam want her to become a housewife? "I accompany Sam to all of his events and accept invitations to things happening in that city or town – things that deal with my career, only. There is no resentment, hostility or force between the two of us. I don't mind meeting fans and making appearance, and to me, it doesn't matter where I do that at. So why not do it wherever Sam has appointments."_

_ The only thing that Sam really tried to restrict her on was getting on the Internet. She had to for certain networking purposes, and she was always one to respond to, reblog, retweet, and reply to her fans, when she had the chance. But, Sam was worried, because of the hate messages that she pretty frequently received and her upset after seeing them. "Don't stress yourself out that way. It's not good for Marvel," he told her when she began cussing about Sam being shipped with people._

"_Look at this photo! This is a photo of you watching that actress dance," she said._

"_I was watching the entire scene, because we were filming and I was paying attention to my work. They happened to catch it at an opportune time to exploit the situation."_

"_Samerina! That's what they call you two. There are stories and sites dedicated to this."_

"_I have fans that ship me with anybody."_

_Mercedes was still not pleased. That made her sicker than the messages that she was a fat ugly whore that didn't deserve a hot guy like Sam. Hell, Sam had chased her… she knew she had that good-good and her man wasn't displeased, so why would he go anywhere else? But, she was going to have a baby in a few months and her child would have to eventually be exposed to some of this foolishness… that was something that she had never really thought about before. It bothered the hell out of her._

_ Upon finding out that they would be having a son, Sam immediately began trying to plan out the nursery. "Star Wars… or Superman?" He asked._

"_Why would we name a child Marvel and give him a Superman room? Seems like that would give him a conflict or complex or something," she said._

"_You overthink this," he told her. "I'm liking Superman for him. When Bill told Beatrice why he liked Superman, I loved that monologue. That's what this kid will be – something magnificent that will be taught to be meek, but now to squelch his powers." _

_She laughed, "Then why don't we name him Superman?"_

"_Could we?" He asked, excitedly. "I thought you'd gotten attached to "Marvel," since we've always called him that, but you're on to something with this Superman thing."_

"_That was sarcasm, Sam. We aren't naming our baby Superman, or Clark Kent or whatever his Krypton name is that I keep saying wrong."_

"_So you are attached to "Marvel," then," he mused. "What about X-Men, then? Or, perhaps – the mighty Thor!"_

"_I like Thor," she said, softly. Sam fist pumped and did a body. The two – in – one praise combo, Mercedes called it in her mind. She simply smiled weakly at him until he calmed down and noticed her mood was odd. "Are you really alright with Thor? Because I'm actually partial to he and Wolverine."_

"_Sam, you are free to decorate our child's nursery however you wish. That's not the problem."_

"_My ears are open," he said and sat next to her._

"_The problem is that I have no idea how to balance being a mommy and being a successful singer. I've barely been able to be a wife and successful singer, now there's going to be another direction that I'm pulled in. It's overwhelming."_

"_Mercedes, our son is going to watch you all of his childhood and grow up thinking that you're a superhero. He's gonna be able to tell his friends who are cool enough to be in the know 'my mom is Madison Crowe' and MEAN it. And he's gonna hope to one day have a wife like you to mother his children. He's gonna give speeches at dedications to you about how much of a wonderful mom you were, even though you were a huge superstar. Know how I know? Because I'm gonna be doin' the exact same thing – bragging on you, like I do, now… but even more as the years pass." He kissed her temple, then her belly and said to it, "Marvel, if you make a liar out of me, there's gonna be some consequences and repercussions."_

"_You are SO crazy!" she squealed and burst into a fit of laughter. Then, she said, "I wanna show you something that upset me earlier, but don't get mad – because now it's funny." Sam stopped smiling and waited for her to search for something on her computer. She pulled it up and passed the laptop to him, giggling._

"_This… bitch!" He said, as he looked at a photo manip from when he gave Mercedes flowers after one of her shows to look like she was carrying a tater tot baby._

"_They ship you with the slim, sexy women and ship me with tater tots," she said. "I was mad, for about ten seconds, then I thought about how much power and control they allow me to have over their lives, that they take the time to think about me, even in absurd situations, such as having sex with a tater tot and being magically able to reproduce with one. That just killed me. I was crying laughing. Then, I googled Totcedes, Baby, I laughed so hard at the amount of energy I have these girls spending on me that I almost peed on myself."_

"_This ain't funny," Sam said._

"_It'll be funny. Give it time and really think about it, Sam. They spend time out of their lives to do this…" She pulled up a heinous drawing of her actually having sex with a huge tater tot and blurted into a squeal of laughter, kicking her little legs around as she fell backwards onto the bed._

"_Nope… not funny," Sam said, staring at the screen, now googling it, himself. It never became funny to him. He got up and left the room after signing off of her computer and setting it down. Mercedes got up and went to check on him. He really seemed upset, and she hadn't expected him to be so angry. She thought that they would have a laugh at the expense of the foolishness of others._

_She peeked in to see Sam starting one of his web vids and eavesdropped. "Hey, fans and friends… I don't know how many people have seen this Totcedes crap on the net where really childish, racist, sizeist losers are trying to harp on what they deem to be flaws of my wife, but I just want to say that if I find out that any of my fans are participating in that type of body-shaming and fat-shaming, I'll disown you. I'll send to a personal, official letter of being disowned as one of my fans. And, by the way, ain't nothing wrong with loving tater tots. And there's damned sure nothing wrong with the way that my wife looks or how she treats me. I've had five damned years to get out of this, if it wasn't what I wanted. _

_The woman that I slapped a ring on as soon as I got the chance, the one that sleeps next to me every night that she isn't in my arms, the one carrying our child – I married her on purpose and I don't have the patience for people saying anything against her. She thinks it's funny, but let me say this – if I get you in my reach, your getting punched in the face. Even if you're a teenage girl… my little sister, Stacey will punch you in the face." Mercedes snickered from her hiding place and Sam looked over. "You're laughing. I'm about to post this sh*t," he told her._

"_Sam, you'd BETTER not post that you're going to have a teenage girl punched in the face for what she puts on her blog."_

"_Should I reword it to 'I hope you get punched'? Or 'you should be punched'?"_

"_You shouldn't dignify that stuff with a response," she said as she came into the room. He held his arms out to her and she came to sit on his lap. "Besides, the media will take what you said and rip you to shreds."_

_Sam kissed his woman on the side of the head and told her, "Well, I love you more than anything, so IDGAF," and posted the video. She gasped and he winked at her. "Now, now… maybe it's amusing," he told her. _

When Sam finally woke up, Whitney was there, reading a magazine, yet again. "You alright, Daddy? You were cussing in your sleep."

"I was thinking about something absolutely ridiculous that was happening when Mercy was pregnant with Marvel," he said.

Whitney shut her magazine and said, "What was it?"

"It was too stupid to even talk about. Where is Kelsey with your mother?" He asked. "I'm tired of taking naps to wait for her."

"You don't have to take a nap, Daddy. We can sit and talk… Remember when we used to do that?" She asked, knowing he honestly might not. They'd only had a few significant talks since she was a preteen.

"What do you wanna talk about, Whit?" He asked and yawned. Yawning shouldn't be painful, but as he stretched, everything felt tight and tense.

"We can talk about when Mama was pregnant with Marvel," she said. Sam loved talking about Mercedes and that should be some good memories for him.

_ Mercy was already a couple of months pregnant with Marvel when we got married, but nobody knew it but the two of us, our parents, Puck (because he was always at our place and Quinn figured it out. She was beautiful. Her skin was glowing, she had to change her diet and she was sick a lot, so she got smaller, even though her belly was growing. She got onto pregnancy workouts and spent time each day just rubbing herself with cocoa butter, afraid to get stretch marks and singing to the baby, not wanting to go a day without singing, so her voice would stay nice, since she wasn't sure how frequently she would be able to perform and record._

_ Her hips stretched and her chest and rump got bigger, so she was constantly trying to make sure she kept herself toning, because she'd lost so much weight, before and she didn't wanna gain it all back. Both of our careers were going really well. Marvel was our first, so we didn't know what to expect and Mercy ended up reading me a lot of pregnancy and parenting books, because she knew I wouldn't take the time to read them, but she wanted me to know everything that she was learning, so that we could work on parenting together, as a unit and not a tag team._

_ We made photo records and videos of every single thing that there was – check up's, pregnancy time line milestones, and events that we went to. When she was eight months pregnant, she had a pregnancy photo shoot, and must have taken thousands of photos. I was in some of them and some were even nude (tastefully nude, of course, you know). I released a magazine of it, from Borderline comics, and we made a KILLING on it, because no other magazine had photos of her pregnant, like that. I wasn't even initially trying to make money off of our pregnancy photos. I was trying to make her a memento. Of course, the one that I made her had a hardbound cover and was much thicker than the magazines that we pushed out. The things that we did for Marvel became tradition, though._

_ Both of us agreed that should we ever have any more children, we would be just as excited and eager to do all of the things that we did the first time, with all of you, because technically, it would be the first time, all over again. Each of you would be a new person and gave us new opportunities to do things that we so loved to do when we did them the first time with Marvel. We decided from the moment that we had our first official talk about becoming parents that we would never have favorites or treat any of our children differently than any others… _(Whitney scoffed under her breath, but he didn't hear and she didn't point out the lie in that statement, but it wasn't true and she had several examples of why that were now not worth bringing up, anymore… especially considering that he'd forgotten every one of them.)

_Of course, we couldn't do it all exactly the same, but we strived for the same milestones – first doctor visit, ultrasound party, writing songs for you, singing songs to you, reading to you, talking to you, me kissing Mercy and the baby hello and good night, scheduling photo shoots and planning out nurseries. We did Thor for Marvel and I mean, I went all out with that nursery. I had my Thor collectible stuff that Marvel wouldn't even be able to use or appreciate in there. It was absolute madness, Whit. _(He laughed.) _I would come home and try to dash past Mercy, before she saw me bringing something else in. She would ask me to see it, if she caught me and just stare at me with this affectionately annoyed look. She was the most beautiful thing ever, pregnant._

"Mama was the most beautiful woman that I have ever known," Whitney said.

"She still is," Sam said, nodding admirably.

_ The main difference between Marvel's birth and all of yours was that for the rest of you, Dwight Evans and Marvin Jones were BANNED from being in the room. They kept giving advice that nobody was asking for and trying to give me instructions that got me in trouble with your mom, repeatedly and bothered her so much that she cussed both of them out, more than a few times (and you know Mercy would never do that, otherwise.) Plus, Dad fainted and Marvin laughed at it, while the baby was being born and he turned to look at him on the ground and make commentary, instead of focusing the camera on Mercy. Luckily, he didn't miss Marvel coming out, but when he first looked at him, he says, "Look at the lips on my grandchild. This child will be teased forever for those lips." Mercedes tried to kick him and kicked a nurse instead, then the doctor put Marvin out of the room. _

_ From the start, Mercedes said, "Aww, he looks just like his daddy, and I have no idea what kind of eyes a mother looks at her kid with, but I couldn't tell who the hell he looked like. He looked like a little bundle of perfect stuff and boy did we marvel, but the only trait that was actually noticeable to me were his lips, and he could've gotten big lips from either of us. But, his eyes were green. He looked white, when he was born, but Mercy said that even full black babies sometimes come out looking fair and that he'd most likely darken as he got a little older. He didn't get too dark, though. Even now, he has his seasons where he looks almost white…_

"He never actually looks white, Daddy. His skin is a little pale, but you can always see that he's a man of color," she responded.

"He's a biracial man," Sam said.

_ Marvel surprised us, then a couple of years later, I had to prepare myself for the reality of Mercedes hosting Blaine and Kurt's first child. The four of us went to the meetings together with the doctor and did everything that was instructed to us. I love Kurt and Blaine and after spending two years with my own son, I could think of no greater gift for us to give them than a child of their own. _

_Mercedes took a break for her pregnancy with Andrew, because of course, Blaine and Kurt wanted to have every moment that they could with the formation of this child. That was the most time that your mother and I spent apart, regularly, because she lived in New York with them, at that time. I was there as much as I could manage, but I by that time, I was spearheaded to direct one of the greatest superhero trilogies EVER, which was based upon a comic book character fighting videogame – it was TRIFECTA. It was DC vs Capcom vs Marvel… and I was lucky as all hell to be selected to do it. I had to focus heavily on it. It pretty much became my new baby, while Mercedes was carrying someone else's baby. It took about seven years to complete the TRIFECTA Trilogy._

_ Marvel was two, when I started on it, and we bounced the poor boy around. Sometimes, I had him in California, and sometimes he was with your mom and them in New York. We weren't really sure how to make it all work for us, but we ended up making it work, fine. Although, I gotta say, he surely was at his best when the three of us were together, as a family. He surprised us, when he was conceived, but we planned D.C. and you. We were able to map out career trajectory calendars that correlated with and around both of you…which was your mother's doing, of course. I was more like – let's just do whatever is fun and do what we gotta do when we gotta do it, because we have money now and don't have to worry about a lot of details. _

_That wasn't true, because there were always outside sources of conflict. We're taking D.C. to the doctor when he was little because he had a respiratory problem and we have fifteen cameras outside when we're leaving, which sends him into an attack and we try to get him away from it and get his inhaler to him, and while Mercy's dealing with that, I'm punching the nearest camera man in the face for trying to actually get his camera into my vehicle to take a photo of my kid struggling to breathe._

"The price of fame can be a terrible thing," Whitney commented. "Marvel was like the perfect baby and the most beautiful child. He used to get all this recognition for being one of those baby products models and in all these ads and stuff. Then, DC got a lot of attention because he was so sickly when he was little. He always had a nurse there for him and Mama was always checking up on him, if she wasn't around. I felt a little lost in the shuffle," Whitney admitted.

"You were our first daughter. If anything, we spoiled you," Sam commented.

_ When Mercy realized that we were having a girl, she was SO excited. She had been wanting a girl, even though she loved your brothers very much, including Andrew, her family was a huge mass of males. She had two brothers growing up, she had two sons with me and even the baby she brought forth for Blaine and Kurt was a boy, and Blaine and Kurt were both guys, so she kind wanted to get into her little diva fee fees. So, you were like a godsend for her. I remember her whispering to me that night, "I finally feel like I'm going to have a kindred spirit." The boys loved her, but boys generally wanna be like their daddy… you know, if they've got a good dad, he's their role model. She wanted to feel that. You were perfect at making her feel that way, Whitney. You've always made her proud. _(The tears formed in Whitney's eyes and she nodded her head. She wished that he knew how much this meant to her, but a huge portion of that was the fact that Mama was no longer in her life, only in her heart.)

"Did you plan Majesty?" she asked.

"No, but we found out about her almost immediately. I think Mercy was like two weeks pregnant or something when she found out. By that time, I was pretty high up in the comics world and had several movies under my belt – comics that they made into movies from my screenplays, three producer films and I'd directed the TRIFECTA Trilogy and the first major motion picture production of Zadyn. Mercedes worked for fun. She didn't have to do a damned thing, if she didn't want to… but she wouldn't have had to, either. She had made several hit albums by that time, and was always on top ten lists, won like several Grammies and was still performing and touring."

_ Mercedes picked up the toddler, Whitney and squeezed her. "You are going to have yourself a new little sister!" She told her. Whitney tried to repeat the word. "Mama's gonna have another baby and you'll have a sister."_

_Sam looked at Mercedes, "Did I miss something? What makes you say that this is a girl? I mean – I'm for it, I'm for whatever, but – you sound so sure, and it's still entirely too early to tell."_

"_I bet you she is," Mercedes said._

"_How could you possibly know that?" He asked.  
"She feels like a girl," she said, with a shrug. "And I think I'll name her Majesty."_

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa… you named our last two children. It's my turn, now!" Sam argued._

"_WE named DC. You kept calling him DC, and I had to find suitable names to fit those initials… and I only picked the D. You made the C – Creed, like I wasn't going to know by now that you were naming my baby after Sabretooth." _

_Sam smiled a crooked smile and told her, "I love it when you name drop and sound like you know what you're talking about." He kissed her on the cheek and said, "And you just so happen to be right, this time."_

"_Sam Evans, I pay more attention to you than anyone else in this world. Do you have any idea how many useless facts about comic books I have retained in my head all because I heard them come out of your mouth?" He took her lips into his mouth and she pulled away, "Don't, in front of my little angel."_

"_She doesn't even understand what she saw," Sam defended._

"_Yeah, all she knows is that she imitates Mama," she reminded him._

"_Oh, hell no. I better never see anyone kissing on my baby girl like that."_

"_I once was someone's baby girl," Mercedes pointed out._

"_You weren't _my _baby girl," he said and winked at her. "Now, hand her over, Mama." He took Whitney off of Mercedes' hands and said, "And you and Majesty go lay down. You've been on your feet all day." He pressed his forehead to his wife's forehead and told her, "And I have to protect all of my baby girls." She smiled against his lips and took his hand. Mercedes led her husband to his lucky chair and prompted him to sit. She took Whitney back and sat on him with Whitney nestled against her. _

"_We feel safest in your arms, Sam," Mercedes told him. He smiled and wrapped his arms around both, all three of them and Whitney latched on to his hands and fell to sleep against her mother._

"About a year after Majesty was born, I wrapped up the trilogy and Mercy and I were taking a break from work. We were just enjoying our past success and enjoying all of you. You all had already formed your personalities and were honing talents and hobbies."

"I remember you and Mama supporting everything we wanted to do. Some of our friends were so jealous because you guys always taught us to follow our dreams, no matter what they were." Whitney was about to cry when the doorbell sounded. Sam got up quicker than Whitney even realized that he could and rushed to the door. His daughter took that time to collect herself and control her breathing, then got up and went to the door to greet her mother and Kelsey.


	12. Daddy's Girl

**12. Daddy's Girl**

Kelsey did her usual performance of dropping Mercedes off and kidding her great uncle good night and her aunt, as well. Sam could hardly wait to tell Mercedes, "Whitney and I have been bonding while you were out. We were talking about your pregnancies, even Andrew's…" Whitney closed the door and followed them into the living room, having no idea that Mercedes' arm was around her shoulders. "Whit, you have anything else you wanna talk about?"

Mercedes told Sam, "If you two are bonding, I hate to interrupt. It's been a while. I'm going to go lay down and read. Have fun," she said and kissed Whitney's cheek.

Sam shrugged and said, "You heard the woman. Let's keep talkin,'" Sam went to sit on the couch and Whitney could tell from how he was positioning himself, that he was reaching for Mercedes. "No good night hug?" He asked, and teased her for a moment. When she was off to read, Whitney sat on the couch with her father. He watched his wife leave the room, then gave his daughter his undivided attention.

"Daddy, you keep reminiscing about all of the good times you and Mama had… do you ever think about the bad times?" She asked.

"I don't dwell on them."

"No, of course not… But, I grew up thinking that people didn't really argue and have disagreements in love… or that all relationships were perfect. I got into relationships and thought that I was doing something terribly wrong and Mama explained that couples fuss and argue and it's healthy and helps to compromise and to come to agreements. I thought that the two of you never made each other sad or mad. It was a complete shock to learn at nineteen that this wasn't true. How did you two even do that? How could you keep up the act that everything was always wonderful?"

"That's easy! Wasn't an act. Everything was always wonderful. Mercy and I disagreeing or even getting mad at or upset with each other never took away from how much we loved each other or how happy we were together. We simply made a few decisions together, when we were first married."

_ Sam was no longer able to spend much time working. Mercedes was fully pregnant, sporting that wonderfully shaped baby bump and in the process of possibly being considered for the role of the star in an up in the air movie production. Sam brought all of his projects to a close and pulled out of anything that might conflict with Marvel's birth. "This is simply too important for me to waste my time on anything besides bringing Marvel into this world and making sure both of you have everything you need physically and emotionally." _

_ Mercedes and Sam stood in the Thor decorated room, which was simply OVER-done, as far as she was concerned, but Sam was just so excited and nervous about their upcoming son. "I hope that he likes his room. I hope that the life sized figure doesn't scare him, or the painting on the wall, for that matter… I think he'll enjoy the lighting patterns on the ceiling, though." He commented while looking up to admire the work he had done, there._

"_He'll have time to figure it out, Sam. When he first gets to the nursery, he won't even be able to decipher what any of this stuff is," Mercedes said. "Just relax. Everything will be fine and he'll love the room, because he'll be loved and cared for and this room is going to be a part of that loving that he feels and receives from you."_

"_I hope that he's healthy. I mean, that he never has to struggle with any kind of serious illness or deformity. I'll love him no matter what. I just want him to be as safe and happy as possible."_

"_Hey! Don't even talk like that! Marvel is fine. I'm healthy and all of the tests and visits are always perfect. We've done everything right, as it relates to this pregnancy. Why would it even cross your mind that something might be wrong with him?"_

"_He could be born perfectly healthy, then have something happen. He could develop autism. He could get into an accident…"_

"_I do not want to hear that kind of talk, and from you, Sam – I am truly shocked. You're never a negative person." He lowered his head, a bit ashamed that he was being so insecure. Mercedes snuggled closely to him and cupped his face, "Marvel Evans is going to be a wonderful, healthy, happy baby and grow up to be as handsome, loving and dependable as you – because he'll have your genes and he'll have your upbringing. I only hope that I can pass on something special to him, too."_

"_Know what? I feel really bad that I started the chain of negativity. You're right. I'm supposed to be the positive one."_

"_Well, you don't have to be the positive ONE, but I think that positivity is definitely in order. I mean, we've been living out our dreams the past few years. We're both climbing higher and higher in our careers. Our marriage has been on the frontlines in gossip magazines and tabloid columns, yet we still manage to make it out unscathed and be madly in love. We have this bundle of joy on the way and his room is more fly than any kid's I have ever seen…" Sam chuckled at that and she pinched his cheeks, "You do an amazing job, all across the board. You always have. I don't want to hear any more negative talk about this."_

"_How about no more negative talk, period?" He asked. She turned her head slightly to the side as she looked at him. That was impossible. "I mean, only if it's reasonable. You know, like if you get sick and I'm worried that you'll miss one of my events, that's fine. But, if you get sick and I panic that you have SARS…" She laughed. "Mercedes, SARS is no laughing matter!" _

"_No, it isn't. Okay. That's a good one. Let me put an extension on it – no arguing in front of the kids."_

"_Oh.. are there two in there?" He joked and poked her in the belly._

"_You think Marvel is gonna be a lone ranger? I mean, we do it all of the time and I plan on having a girl, before my uterus retires." Sam smiled brightly at his wife. If he could add another to her load, right now, he would. But, she kept talking, "I don't want them to have to hear about our adult problems. I think that might make them less likely to want to come to us with their own."_

"_I think that might have the opposite effect. What if they think that we're so perfect that if they admit they have problems, it'll disappoint us?"_

"_Hopefully it won't have that effect. I just know that I used to hear my mom and dad argue about my passion for singing and whether or not they should help me with that and what kind of a career it could be… it made ME insecure. We can have talks in front of them – where they can see us sorting out solutions and compromising… but actual arguments – like the ones that come up when you're caught on camera catering to thirsty fans.."_

"_Don't start. Marvel will hear you," he warned, with a finger held up. Mercedes stuck her tongue out at his teasing and he dove on it to capture the thing with his mouth. Sam moved his wife towards the wall and kissed her more vigorously. _

"_Sam, not in the damned nursery!" She hissed._

"_But, this is the only room in this house we haven't," he pleaded, kissing her neck._

"_There is a reason for that, Sam."_

"_Cause it was always under construction?" He said, attacking her neck with kisses and pointing his hand at her womb. "I mean, it's not like he'll know the difference." Mercedes shoved him away and playfully took off running towards the bedroom, laughing. Sam gave chase, momentarily, but had to stop and laugh himself at the image of her, waddle-skipping away from him. He got to the bedroom, red in the face with laughter and showed her how she looked, which made her break into a fit of laughs, as well._

"_Shut up! I'm carrying a whole child inside of me. Of course it's gonna make my run look funny! I'll bet you aren't humored at how it looks if I back this up." She said and smacked herself across the backside._

"_He smiled and approached, "Probably not so much humored, but I'm sure that's entertaining. Stick your tongue out again. I dare you."_

_She smiled softly and said, "One more thing, I forgot to mention before you assaulted my lips a moment ago… No morbid talk. I can't stand it when my mom starts talking about what I'm gonna have to be able to know how to do for when she's not around anymore. Like, really, Mom – just teach me the stuff and tell me I have to know it for the future. Why paint a mental image for me of life without you in it?"_

"_Helps you to realize the seriousness of learning it," he said._

"_I don't want to have conversations about you possibly dying, Sam. I want it to come as a complete shock and I want to be in a position to be prepared, but still not know exactly how to deal with it," she told him._

"_That's crazy, Cedes. You have to deal with it, so why not be prepared?"_

"_How about this – have the conversation once, put it on paper, then never again?" She said. Sam tilted his head sympathetically. She sniffled, "I don't know if it's that my hormones are still messed up, or the fact that we've been around each other for several consecutive days, for a change, but just the thought of trying to adjust to some kind of life without you… It's too messed up to think about and I don't want us talking about stuff like that."_

"_No morbid talk!" He promised, zipped his lips and threw away the key. _

"_Hey now, hey now… don't be sealing those lips. I was trying to get my kisses out of those."_

"_Oh, they stay open for that."_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Hell yeah…" He settled upon her and kissed her again._

Sam simply shook his head and shrugged, "We made a decision that we wouldn't speak morbidly about things or have negative conversations or argue in front of you. I'm sure that we had some negative talks, but we are human after all. We wanted to be sure though that we didn't argue in front of you. Because, we did argue. We argued about the time that we were apart and the time that we could spend together. We argued about things that rubbed us the wrong way that were printed in different gossip magazines and on websites – like every time there were speculations about women that I was supposedly having affairs with. She thought that I sometimes didn't care enough about people spreading such lies and I thought she cared too much about stuff that wasn't true and worth the energy to fight. But, the problems that came along with fame often were that everyone who's in your business knows very little about your business."

Whitney nodded in agreement as she checked her phone to see that Majesty had called. Sam sat in silence as he watched his older daughter call her younger sister back. "Majesty, how are you tonight, my dear? I'm actually sitting around with Daddy – talking about he and Mama's good old days, so I can't talk long, but we oughtta get together soon and have a Daddy-Daughter Day. Mm hmm. Okay, I love you too, my sweet. Good night."

"Actually, Whit – I think that I'm going to get washed up for the night. Maybe we can continue talking tomorrow," Sam said, staring off into the distance.

"Did I do something wrong, Daddy?" Whitney asked, worried that her newfound connection with her father had been stopped at its start.

"Not at all. I'm an old man and used to routine. It's about time for washing up and getting ready for bed." She got up to help him up and watched him go into the bedroom. He would get washed up, but he wouldn't go immediately to bed. Even as an old man, he never did. He came back into the room afterwards and settled on his lucky chair and reminisced. Most of the older people that Whitney knew often thought back on their lives and thought of their family and loved ones. Her father was no different in that regard. The still talking to Mercedes aspect was a bit different, but to her – it made sense, no matter how much it hurt.

Heck, if Mama and Daddy were having talks about not having morbid talks, and making agreements not to argue in front of the children or speak about negative things… It made a darned good bit of sense that Sam was in this type of peaked denial. But, it seemed to her that he was constantly thinking of better times. He wasn't really making any new memories with Mercedes. He was simply pondering and speaking of ones already created. It was, to her as though his life was flashing right before his eyes… and that thought bothered her. What if these were his last days and he was thinking of all of these things as a farewell preparation? Whitney sighed and ventured to the wine cellar. She knew that her parents always kept wine in it, for the simple fact that's what it was for. She could use a glass.

When Sam settled in his lucky chair, Whitney remained on the couch, just watching him stare straight ahead. He was retreating into his own world. She couldn't follow him inside and if he was going to talk to her about whatever was now going through his mind, he would do so, willingly.

_They certainly didn't think that they were too good for anyone at McKinley High, but when Mercedes' ten year class reunion came around, she was a Grammy winning wife and mother of a gratuitously loved toddler, currently working on more hits at her home studio in between the actual production of a movie musical, as the star. She had been considered for several roles, but passed over a few times, in the past. At that point, she was excited to venture into acting and Sam had spent time helping her hone her skills, when he could. To make a long story short, she missed her ten year reunion._

_ The next year, when it was time for Sam's reunion, he could not come to any type of stopping point in his current TRIFECTA project to attend it. Mercy had wanted to try to make it and had her schedule set for the visit to Lima, but when Sam couldn't go – she instead planned a romantic time for him when he was finished with his work for the night (which was late). Some time, shortly after Sam's missed ten year reunion, Mercedes was impregnated with DC, as planned, and one year later with Whitney, as planned. Majesty came two years after, unplanned but highly welcomed. Five years after her, Wagner was born._

_ Two years later, Mercedes didn't know if she even WANTED to go to the class reunion. "I mean, all of the people who meant anything to us in high school are still in our lives."_

"_Not Finn and Rachel," Sam commented as he helped the boys to pack their clothes for the trip. Mercedes frowned, sadly. Finn and Rachel had broken up after graduation, but after he had been in the military for a time, he had gotten lonely and much more in need of human affection and that sense of belonging to someone… so they ended up back together, even though they couldn't see each other as much as they would have wanted to. Rachel liked the drama of it. _

_ Four years after Mercedes gave Andrew to Kurt and Blaine, Rachel held Winter Rose for them… and it was then that she decided that she did not really want to be a mother. It was a beautiful process and she loved being able to give the gift of child to two loved friends (one of them her own beloved's brother. But, the baby had held up her career, changed her body, affected her hormones in such a way that it was difficult for her to act/sing/dance, as she was used to doing regularly, and her nose was the widest it had ever been in the history of being Rachel Berry. After Win was born, Rachel determined that should she ever wish to have a bundle of joy of her own, she could always adopt. _

_ Finn took the news extremely hard, but couldn't see himself breaking up with Rachel. In fact, when he left the military, he followed her, as was initially planned. She had finally become a successful onstage actress and winning awards for her work. She was still that overachiever and wanted to be Barbara Streisand and dominate Broadway… when Finn died. It took everyone by surprise. He had been back and forth to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran. Even though those tours and his military career drastically changed him, he had survived, only to go to New York and be hit by a car while trying to rush to one of Rachel's shows._

_ Rachel unraveled. She developed a drug problem and though she was still acting and singing, the difference was evident and she was too ashamed to face any of them anymore, even Kurt. _

_Sam closed the boys' bags and asked, "Did you get my girls packed up yet?"_

"_Our bags are by the door, waiting for a strong gentleman to pack them into the SUV," she answered. "I'm sorry that I was going to suggest not going," she said, a little shyly. "I know how much Finn meant to you – being that he's the reason you ever even joined Glee in the first place and it turned out to be the best thing to happen to you in high school."_

"_You do realize that's mainly because of the fact that I found you there," Sam said and rubbed his nose against the side of her face, "But, Finn and Rachel did retrieve me from Kentucky and brought me back to you. Finn was one of my closest friends and Rachel promised that she would come, if only just to see the tribute that I've put together for him. I've only seen her once since he died, and that was because I caught her show with Kurt and Puck when Puck and I went to New York last year."_

"_You don't have to explain it to me. I understand. I wanna see her too." Mercedes answered and called out, "Evans Clan! Time to hit the road!" Marvel was already outside, listening to his IPOD and bobbing his head. He was 14, at the time and not that concerned with the family stuff, for the moment. DC and Whitney, 10 and 9, were generally arguing about something and tonight it was who was going to sit in the back._

_Sam quickly informed them, "The girls are right behind Mom and I, with the baby, and the boys are in the back." DC laughed in Whitney's face and Sam warned, "Don't tease your sister. What's your job as big brother?"_

"_To look after her," DC said, annoyed._

"_Right. That includes not picking on her, nor on Majesty," Sam told him. 7 year old Majesty was the first one in her seat and helped her father strap her 2 yr old brother, Wagner into his baby seat. The girl had her hair in two huge afro puffs – because she had a great deal of hair and her fro was actually more curly and loose than Mercedes' had been as a child. Whitney's hair was in a high, single puff at the top of her head, but both girls had purple bows. Mercedes got into the passenger's seat of the vehicle as Sam made sure that all of the numerous bags were packed up._

"_Mama, are Manny and Nanny coming, too?" Whitney asked, excitedly._

"_Manny and Nanny are gonna catch a plane and meet us there," she told them. "When Daddy gets back in the car, you wanna lead the safe travel prayer?"_

"_Oh, yes! Of course, Mama!" Whitney cheered, excitedly. _

_Sam got into the car and threw Mercedes an unimpressed look, "You packed like all of your make up and accessories and several different hairstyles and far more clothes than you need."_

"_I am a diva, Sam. There's not even any such thing as more clothes than I need," she told him with a wink. "Before you drive off, Whitney's gonna pray for safe travel for us." Whitney recited one of the prayers her mother had taught her and when she was done smiled proudly as her mother smiled at her and Sam squeezed her hand and told her how lovely her words were._

She missed those times. She wanted to talk more to Sam, but instead, she simply went over to him and touched his shoulder. He responded by reaching up to her and holding it, even though he didn't move. His mind was still processing old things. For her, that was fine. This moment still was wonderful.


	13. One Sweet Day

_A/N: Y'all, trust me, I am not Team Finn… Finn is one of my least favorite characters in the world of Glee, as is Rachel… but I know that Sam and Mercedes love them, so to be true to Glee and all, I thought that if it did happen, it'd happen like I described, or close to it…_

** One Sweet Day**

_ Renting a house for the weekend was simple enough, but being superstars and returning to Lima was not as easy. Fortunately, both of them had not told a soul, besides the best of their friends from high school that they would be in town for the reunion. Unfortunately, Marvel had mentioned one of his social sites, "Headed to Lima with the whole fam," and it spread like wildfire. Even though he was only fourteen, many of his followers were fans of his mother, his father, or both. Some fans were so hardcore that they thought you couldn't be a fan of only one of them – that based upon how much they loved each other as a family, you had to be a fan of the whole unit in order to consider yourself a fan of any of its individual components._

_ Mercedes and Marvel were both listening to music, DC was reading, Whitney was looking through magazines and Majesty was taking turns playing with her little brother and watching a DVD when he was sleeping. After several hours, Marvel complained, "Why couldn't we just take the jet to Lima?"_

"_We are attempting to not draw attention to ourselves. You kids have it easy. We let Manny and Nanny take you a lot of the times and you guys can blend in a little better than we can. Mom and I lived in Lima and there are a lot of people who already will notice us. We don't want to be any more conspicuous than we have to. We're going to see your grandparents and visit with old friends," Sam said._

_Marvel sighed and said, "People already know that we'll be in town. I don't even know what's so bad about some attention. We're famous. We're supposed to get attention. If we didn't get attention, we wouldn't be famous."_

_Sam glanced at Mercedes and answered his son, "I guess it's a thing you won't ever understand because you've always been famous."_

_But, Mercedes was onto something else: "What do you mean people already know we'll be in town?"_

_Marvel looked confused as to why this was even a question. "I posted it on Yo Stats when we we're leaving L.A. My trackers have been posting stats about it since… some of our mutual and joint trackers have been too."_

"_This boy put us on Yo Stats… Marvel, the whole point of us doing things this way was to avoid the paparazzi and have this visit be as normal as possible."_

"_The paparazzi is normal," he said._

"_She meant normal people normal… not Evans clan normal. Every time we come to Lima, we can only enjoy it for a good day or two tops before we're swarmed with fans and cameras outside of the house, every time we try to go from place to place. Mom and I would like to sometimes be able to just see G-Dad and G-ma Jones and hang out at a few places that were really special to us when we were dating in school and hit up places we used to make memories with our friends without being tracked every step."_

"_He's not going to understand," Mercedes realized. "Marvel, next time, just do not say anything, okay, Son?"_

"_Okay," he said, resigned to a sigh. What was so wrong with being famous and actually liking it? All of the teenagers in the world who wanted to be his friend, who wanted to be like him and/or with him seemed to him that normal people wanted what they had… why would he want to act like the normal people? _

_ Kurt and Blaine's entire family was immaculately dressed (every single day), and this was no exception. Andrew was probably the most stylish twelve year old alive and Winter Rose was an eight year old who lived for fashion. They rushed to the Evans' children excitedly and the entire group of them disappeared somewhere together in the weekend house. "So, I see that it is still Diva and Dork time. Sam, did you realize that you were going to be coming to reunion?" Kurt asked as he waved his hand up and down what Sam was wearing. "When did you grow a beard?"_

"_Hey! You leave his beard alone. I love it. He looks absolutely sexy with it and it tickles really nicely," Mercedes said and Sam exhibited the tickling when he administered a few kisses to her neck and watched her tingle and shiver, pleasantly. _

_ Blaine had collected Wagner and admitted, "I think that I want another one." He bit Wagner on the cheeks and made all kinds of sounds when he did._

"_I do, too," Sam said. Mercedes just looked at him, incredulously. "What? We always said however many God decides to give us."_

"_Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that God knows that five is enough," Mercedes told him. "I love my kids and I enjoy the pregnancies, but I am getting older and it takes a lot of energy to be a mom and a superstar. It takes a lot more to be a wife, superstar and supermom, and being a superwife-superstar-supermom is already the hardest thing that I have ever had to do. I have a child for each finger on the hand that rocks the cradle… seems to be enough."_

"_You have more children than that," Blaine reminded her, with Wagner hoisted on his side._

"_Well yes, of course – Andrew and Winnie, and of course Mike and Tina's kids… I meant that I am actually raising on a daily basis, while I tackle my career that I intend to retire gracefully from and not to fall from grace from." _

"_You guys hear from Rachel?" Sam asked, suddenly. Mercedes shook her head at his terrible timing. He didn't even seem to realize that he asked about Rachel right after the comment that she'd made._

"_She's definitely coming," Kurt said. "Winter Rose spoke with her earlier, and she was getting off of the plane. She's going to visit Will and Emma, then she'll be gathering with us, here."_

_Sam sat down on the couch and said, "Fair warning, guys…. Marvel posted a stat that we would be here this weekend."_

"_Oh, we know. We track him," Blaine said. "I added to that statistic."_

"_I did too. We all did. Do you even keep up with Yo Stats, Sam?" Kurt asked, incredulously._

"_No, I don't. Y'all don't think we're a little old to still be keeping up with social networking sites?" Sam asked. "It was exhausting when we were teenagers. It makes my brain hurt, now. The only reason that I'm on it is to police my girls' records and make sure that no predators or shady figures are tracking their stats."_

"_Predators prey on boys, too," Blaine reminded him. _

"_My boys are older and they know how to handle themselves better than Whitney and Majesty… and Majesty's too young to have a page of her own, anyway… but her mom let her get a page filed in Mercedes' records… is that what it's called? I even get tired trying to remember the terminology of this thing." Kurt shook his head and threw his hands up at how hopeless his poor Sam still was._

_Blaine sat down with Wagner on his lap and began to play games with him. "Being a daddy is tough work, but I can't think of anything more rewarding. It makes me sad to think that there are still people in the world that would want to deny Kurt and I the chance to do it. Sebastian is ready, now… Dave is still hesitant."_

"_Probably remembering how hard he made it for the kids who were different in school," Sam said. "So, are they going to try, or what?"_

"_They're considering adopting," Blaine said. _

_Kurt added, "But, Sebastian has already claimed that they needed a 'post potty training child,' yeah – he's totally ready to be a father." Kurt reached for Wagner and the boy immediately came to him. "This child loves sparkly things. I will not be surprised if he turns out to be one of us," and nuzzled him with his nose._

"_I don't know – he's quite a flirt with the ladies," Mercedes observed. He kissed some random woman on the hand last week, at the whole foods store, when she stopped to say hi because she's having a baby and in this phase where she admires other people's kids that are already here." Sam fist pumped. "And that's how his dad responds – a fist pump… encouraging our son to just kiss on strangers."_

_Sam said, "He's taking lessons from his old man. He sees me kiss on you all the time and he doesn't know the difference. To him, that's a greeting. If I had to vote on one of our kids turning out to be gay, I would say DC," Sam stated._

_Kurt laughed and shook his head, "Are you kidding me? DC is the least stylish child that you have. He wouldn't even qualify as metrosexual…"_

"_Don't put my kid in a box, Kurt," Sam said. "Besides, you make it sound as if every gay male has to be like you, or like Blaine. So, you're not only putting DC in a box, but you're putting yourself and Blaine in one, too." Wagner started to squirm and groan and Sam talked softly and sweetly to him, "Sorry, lil' man. You want all your daddies to stop talking so rough, huh? Doesn't make a difference, huh? We'll love all of you, no matter who you turn out to be!" Wagner reached for his father, then for his mother. _

_Mercedes took him from Sam and asked, "Are Sebastian and Dave coming to the reunion? I know that neither of them graduated from McKinley, but Dave is still alumni and I figured he at least has a friend or two there that might invite him."_

"_I invited him," Kurt said. "Whether or not he's coming, I can't say." His phone rang and he answered, "Rachel!" He rushed to the door and the others followed him. When he opened the door, Rachel was standing there with several bags of luggage and gift bags from several different stores. She almost looked like a cartoon character carrying all of it. "Darling!" Kurt cheered and rushed to give her an extremely big hug that nearly tackled her to the ground. The others hugged her as well and began to help her bring her things inside._

"_I hope that none of you mind – I brought all of the children gifts," she announced._

"_Of course we don't mind," Kurt cooed and ushered her inside as he left Sam and Blaine to handle the bags. "Tip the cabbie," Kurt whispered to Blaine, then announced to Rachel, "We have to go shopping for the perfect clothes to wear tonight. Mercedes can leave the baby with Sam and we girls can hit the mall and pretend to be commoners…"_

_ Sam and Mercedes entered the reunion with an entourage… Kurt and Blaine, one each on Rachel's arm, Mike and Tina behind them, Puck and Quinn, Sebastian and David all came inside together. Quinn and Puck weren't dating or together, for that matter, but they'd decided to attend the reunion together, as Quinn's husband was currently in the middle of a high profile case and generally stayed out of the limelight, when he was… traveling amongst the likes of Mercedes Jones-Evans, Sam Evans, Kurt Hummel-Anderson (the self appointed and publically accepted king and queen of fashion and design), Dave Karofsky (successful sports agent) and Sebastian Smythe (model, singer, dancer, actor, and whenever that would end: Harvard graduate), even traveling to some place as Lima, Ohio – was the limelight._

_ Santana saw them all come in together and shook her head. Hell, they could have told her that it was a group date, but she supposed that they simply all must have thought that they were too much for her to even be included in the walk in. Hell – Mike and Tina weren't that damned famous. In fact, if it wasn't for her touring with Mercedes and being a close frined of the family, people wouldn't even know Tina. Who, besides theatre nerds actually pays any attention to the makeup and costumes people of Broadway productions? And even though Mike was an astounding dancer and doing quite well in it, she knew that mostly dancers and musicians knew of him, but the everyday person probably could care less. Stop being bitter, Santana – these people were your friends, once, She told herself. _

_ Brittany and Artie were on the dance floor, already, like some dancing fools. Santana rolled her eyes. She and Brittany had a good run and they were totally in love, even when they broke up… but things just changed between them. Santana had a problem adjusting with the fact that so many of their friends were becoming famous and she still wasn't. She was just as talented as any of them! She'd even made sure that she went to college, while she was pursuing her dream of becoming famous. Her underground mixtapes and albums were wonderful, back in the day… but she never just broke out the way that she wanted. _

_ Mercedes had let her make an album in her in home studio when she was having one of her kids – Santana couldn't really remember which one since Sam Evans acted like Mercedes was some kind of baby depository, but even though that album was produced and promoted by Mercedes Jones, it didn't do as well as Santana would have wanted. At first, it seemed fantastic, people were on the bandwagon, like CRAZY and the album even made it to the top ten. _

_By the next year, when Santana was picked up by a major recording label, the sound of the music and the way that the album was created didn't serve her fanbase as much as it did a bunch of preteen girls. That was fine, except for the fact that preteen girls were fickle and while they made her even more famous and richer, they also sucked all of the artistic quality out of her work and she ultimately became a passing fad. When she was ready to get back to being true to the music and to herself, she only had a small niche to market to, and that simply was not going to afford her future. She still got royalties off of her first album and a pinch of royalties from her second album (as the label received the bulk of finances for it), but she was not a star and the stardom that she did have was terribly short lived. _

_ Brittany had a talk show, then a reality TV show, teaching people how to have talk shows. Santana wondered if Brittany ever realized that people watched her show to laugh AT her, but Brittany probably wouldn't have cared, anyway. She made the most and the best of everything that she had and did. One of her favorite moments in life was to have Ellen on her show, and for them to dance together. Santana remembered crying as she watched it, sorry for pushing Brittany away, but happy that Brittany bounced back and became virtually better than ever, and thinking that even as an old lady, Ellen was adorable and fun. Brittany had invited her to come see the show, but she'd been too busy with her advertising job to make the trip. She became one of those bitchy, single career women… and it drove her insane that she knew she fell into a category that people probably always thought that she would._

_ Santana made her way to the group and said, "Well, if Sam's fish lips, Rachel's huge nose and Weezy's weave hadn't decided to grace us, I don't know what type of party this would be…" The group tackled her into a huge bear hug and greeted her with kisses and loving words._

_Mercedes wouldn't even let go of her, "Girl, we thought that you weren't coming! You have no idea how much we've missed you!" _

_Santana took a deep breath and flipped her hair back, "Famous people aren't the only busy people alive, you know. There are those of us who make others and make things famous for a living… and that's sometimes an even more demanding task than being famous. Trust me, I've done both," she said with a laugh._

_Sam announced, "Yeah, I saw you on the cover of one of those successful magazines. I bought it. It's in my collection." Santana swallowed and stared at his excited and proud eyes._

"_That was nothing. You guys are on magazine covers all of the time. I've been on three since I began being in advertising," she said._

_Rachel shook her head and lifted her hands towards Santana's face to cup it as she said, "Santana, you are absolutely one of the best advertising executives in New York. I literally refer everyone looking to advertise anything that I know of to your company."_

"_It isn't my company…" she tried to downgrade._

_Rachel glanced at Kurt and asked, "Do you know the name of anyone else who works there?"_

_He shrugged and waved a hand, "It's not even important to me because I refer everyone to Santana. It's a given."_

_Rachel held both of Santana's hands and told her, "You got what you always wanted. You aren't just famous, but you help others to be famous, too. You should be so proud of yourself for being at the top of your game." She sniffled and wiped her eyes, "I need to make my way to the little diva's room…" Quinn glanced at Rachel leave and everyone else was silent, for a moment._

"_How is she holding up?" Santana asked, when Rachel left the room._

_Quinn shook her head and said, "To be honest, this is the most together that I've seen her in a while." Quinn had been the one to keep the most contact with Rachel, simply because she was the one that Rachel reached out to the most concerning her heartache over Finn. They had been pretty close during college and Rachel always was slightly obsessed with Quinn, even though Quinn was the wife of one of the most successful lawyers in New York and a partner at her firm, and Rachel was a Broadway star… they were still friends, and Quinn was Rachel's lawyer, when she allegedly appeared at an event high on cocaine and was arrested._

_ Quinn saw to it that Rachel served no time, entered a program and paid a fine. Rachel wrote a book about her struggles with the drug, with rehab, and with finally finding closure on the man that she loved and lost. It was a best seller, and Rachel moved on to begin producing shows, instead of performing in them. Whether or not she was still doing any drugs was beyond everyone. "We should check on her," Mercedes suggested, then turned with Quinn, Santana and Tina following her out._

_ Artie rolled up to the fellows and said, "Thanks for inviting me, guys. This is much more fun than my ten year reunion was… I don't even think I'm gonna make it to my twenty." _

_Puck shrugged and said, "I don't remember even caring about any of these people… did we really even graduate in 2012?"_

"_I didn't," Sam, Tina, Artie, and Blaine said. _

_Mike laughed and said, "Let's keep it real, guys – we never cared about our graduating class or senior year stuff. We did everything glee style. Remember… all of the glee club went on senior skip day with us…" he gestured at Artie and said, "Well, except Artie and Quinn, but… It's always been about Glee to us and we're all really here, because of glee; because of the tribute that Sam made for Finn."_

_Artie commented, "I'm making one for Becky next year, and I know that she wasn't glee, and that you all didn't really know her that well, but…"_

"_We're gonna be there," Puck promised. Artie nodded with a smile as Puck said, "That old girl was something else." He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and cleared his throat._

_Sam asked the question, "What can I say about Finn Hudson?" Then, there were his friends, at different times, sharing their memories of him, set to recordings of Finn singing as the background music. There were clips of different Glee performances and Finn on the football field, in high school. There were clips of videos he'd sent home to Carol, when he was in the military and a slideshow of all of the photos that Sam had of him and ones of he and other friends. The last person to speak on the tribute was Rachel, who spoke of when they first met, how she always knew she loved him, and how she always would. "Finn Hudson, you'll never be away from any of us. You live on in our hearts," she said through tears and kissed the camera. _

_Then, the old Glee club – all of the former members took the stage to perform "One Sweet Day." Mercedes technically was not supposed to perform at such events, but had fought with her recording company to do this, for her friend, and even if they had not approved it, she would have done it for him and for Rachel… She didn't even mind being the backup singer, though she was the one to belt out all of the major notes at the end of the song, along with Rachel. _

_Then, the song ended with Rachel, crying, trying to finish, "Sorry, I never told you… all I wanted to say…" and Mercedes wrapped her arm around her crying friend, as Kurt came to help her collect the distraught woman from the stage. As they took her away, Will and Emma made the move to see to her, as well. _

Whitney rubbed her arms as she held herself. Everyone was on their way. She could not figure out what was wrong with her father. He had barely said anything all weekend and he suddenly fell over. She rushed him to the ER and the doctors were in with him as she made all of the calls. The doctor had told her nothing yet, and she was worried that whatever had happened might be a turn for the worse. He had not even talked to Mercedes in the days that she watched him be completely silent. He had simply just been in something like a daze, sort of how he was when her mother died. She wondered if he'd realized… she wondered if he was alright.


	14. Matters of the Heart

****_If anyone who follows me on tumblr and here is wondering why I haven't been posting updates there, it's because my internet is out and I'm using the wi-fi in the public library, which does not allow me to get on tumblr. Hopefully, I'll be able to have the internet agian before the tumblr only folks get too far behind in everything. :)_

**Matters of the Heart**

Whitney wrung her hands, then slide them to her knees to try to still her legs from bouncing up and down, after she finally let herself sit in the waiting room. She shut her eyes and placed her head back against the wall. She and her dad had been making so much progress that she simply was not ready to say goodbye… but maybe that was it. MAYBE the reason that he had been seeing her mother was so that his children could come back into his life and he could have a chance to do things over with them, or at least polish up some of the mess that had been made.

As far as Whit knew, there was never a moment of friction between Marvel and either of their parents. Marvel was a champion child and he grew to be loved all over America and the world… it was no different in the house – in fact, every sibling always went to him with their concerns, except for Wagner who simply always felt closer to Majesty (and that was probably because Marvel was so much older than he was.)

DC had fixed the stuff that had happened between his parents and he, even if it was out of guilt over his father's current mental predicament; the problems had been solved. Then, there was Whitney. She and Sam began talking in sharing in a way that they hadn't in years.

_It had reminded her of when she was a little girl and she snuck into the living room late at night to see him slaving on his lucky chair, piles of papers and thumb drives and his computers all over the area. He would glance up and say, "Couldn't sleep, Lil' Diva?" And he would give her a crooked smile and whatever was in his hands or his lap would be pushed aside and his arms would open and she would rush into them to be held and talked to or sang to, or to simply have a back and forth conversation with him, until she gave in to sleep. _

_She'd wake up the next day, in her bed. Sometimes, she and Majesty would have a bouquet of balloons waiting. Sometimes, they would have flowers. Sometimes they would have cupcakes… but she always knew that even though the gifts were addressed to both of them; it was the fact that she'd had trouble sleeping that made him think to do something nice for them the next morning._

_ Whitney had an elaborately ridiculous Sweet 16. Majesty, 14 at the time propped herself onto her father's shoulders and begged, "Daddy, please promise me that you won't let them do this when I turn sixteen."_

"_You don't want a big, flashy Sweet 16 party?" He asked._

"_Yeah, but it can't be this way. In fact, you are in charge of it. I want it to look like the cross between a James Cameron film…"_

"_I already approve…" Sam said, as she continued._

"_And George Lucas, with some Joss Whedon elements and of course the magical mind and hands of one Sam Evans," the girl finished. Sam smiled at her, having no idea where she was going with it, but hoping that it would be doable, because even though Majesty did not look the traditional part, she was totally a princess. "I'm gonna be AU Dorothy, wearing a blue and white costume reminiscent of Portman's Padme fighter outfit in The Clone Wars…"_

"_Which shall be designed, very soon…" Sam said, nodding._

"_And we'll have ourselves an eerie scarecrow character, I'm imagining Rumplestilskin, from Once Upon a Time…"_

"_I love it," Sam interjected._

"_Our Tin Man is some type of cyborg, of course; I trust you to make his design come to life."_

"_And I shall."_

"_Then my Cowardly Lion is going to be the most badass big alien creature type lion with man to the frickin' floor and I shall call him Chewie," she said with a smile and a shrug._

"_My heart just exploded in my chest at the storyboards that have just flashed in my mind."_

"_We're doing a graphic novel?" She asked excitedly._

"_I don't know if I can gain the rights to publish one, but it's definitely a done deal that we'll have a personal one."_

"_Score! And the party?" She asked._

"_If it's anything other than what you just described, I will literally burn the house down," he promised. Then, he began to continue, "I have all these images of our version of the lions, tigers and bears… oh, and let's not forget that we get to have a slew of munchkins. I vote that they remind us of little R2D2s…"_

"_Are you distracting my free labor?" Sam heard Mercedes ask._

_He scoffed and said, "No, she distracted me from everything else that I ever cared about in life. I've just been signed on to direct the Sweet 16 celebration of our youngest daughter and it is going to be epic; just so you know." He waved Mercedes away and patted the seat next to him for Majesty and the two began to make notes. Mercedes smiled and shook her head, as she left them to go into their nerd mode together. _Heaven only knows what kind of spectacle a Sweet 16 party planned by the two of them would be.

_ Mercedes went to check on Whitney. Her daughter was being dressed and made up by Kurt and Unique, just like her mother had been for her wedding as Whitney requested. The dress that Whitney selected was golden, and very Disney-Princess, with hints of different shades of green. She reminded Mercedes of Tiana and knew that Whitney might have liked the dress because of that – having always enjoyed the first black Disney princess… after all, she was the darkest of the Evans children and for some reason unknown to her, the least favorite of several fans of the family._

_ There were several reporters there to try to get footage and coverage of the party for their respective careers, but Mercedes and Sam had monopoly on their family footage and generally sold only the parts that Sam found to be exclusive material and not too personal. Sometimes, they simply talked to Brittany and let her have some footage. Tonight, Whitney had requested that her father make it a documentary, for her personal library… that was pretty common of Sam to make spectacular films, books, magazines, comics, albums, etc – simply for his family's personal possessions. "Is Daddy in his suit, because Uncle Kurt and Auntie Nique are almost done with me," Whitney said, when her mother entered._

"_Yes, he is dressed and off on some kind of tangent with your sister," Mercedes said with a laugh._

"_What kind of tangent? Because, I don't want him to get distracted and Majesty has a way of distracting him. Today is really important to me and I don't want it watered down…" Whitney began._

"_And the diva switch has been flipped," Unique said and tossed her long, luxurious weave aside, which hit Kurt in the face._

"_Tone it down, Diana," he said and slapped it back over her shoulder._

"_Please don't start!" Whitney said with some authority. She looked sadly at her mother and asked, "Can you at least make sure that he doesn't mess his suit up. Daddy's wonderful about taking care of his lips, but you have to watch him with clothes, especially if Majesty's over there with him. If you tell me that they're in the lucky chair drawing or writing, I am going to cancel this entire thing, because he'll never get his focus back."_

_Mercedes smiled and shook her head, "Honey, you obviously have not been paying attention to him for the past 16 years. I own that focus, okay? Now, you just relax, and let Mama do her thing." Mercedes went to find Sam and Majesty on the chair, brainstorming and she cleared her throat, "Majesty, I need you to go put on your dress, Honey. Your sister will be entering soon." Majesty frowned, but moved quickly to obey. _

_Sam stared at his wife, with a puzzled look, chewing on some gum, "Why do I feel like I'm in trouble?" _

"_Because you're doing it again," she said._

"_I was encouraging creativity."_

"_And you'll have tomorrow and all kinds of other days to do that with her. Not on Whit's day, alright? She knows that you and Majesty have more interests in common and it might make her a little self conscious. So, just treat this day as her big day and you can always start on this project with Majesty, for an event that's still two years away, on tomorrow." Mercedes said, smiled and presented her puckered lips for him to kiss. _

"_Whatever you say, Honeybunch," he said and got up from the chair, collecting his camera. "Let me see how excited I can make her by showing up and getting footage of her, myself."_

"_It'll light up her world," Mercedes assured him and followed him into the room, where Whitney squealed in excitement at the sight of him and his heart filled up and broke at seeing his little girl look so grown up. He was glad that he and his dad went hunting frequently when he was a child… All he had to do was brush up on his shooting and be sure to get himself a very good shotgun._

_ Shortly after her 16th birthday, there was "the talk." Sam and Mercedes had long since decided that since Mercedes once thought that you could catch AIDS from cucumbers during a misunderstanding that when their children were ready, Sam would handle the sex stuff and if they needed it, she would handle the racial stuff. They were a team, but it was determined that Sam was more comfortable with and knew more about sexual information and Mercedes had more experience with and knew more about racial concerns. Mercedes had many opportunities to talk with her daughter on her racial concerns over the years – they didn't dwell on it at home, but she could hear and read the things said about her mother and her family, online and in magazines and newspapers… sometimes the article would be about someone else's comments, but Whitney would see it and have questions, from time to time._

_ Now, she had questions about boys and the feelings that she had about one of them. _Damn it! _Sam thought, _I knew we should have kept them in same sex schools through graduation…_ Mercedes wanted her children to have "normal" junior and senior years, so even though they went to private same sex schools their entire lives, they were able to cross over for junior year. Marvel and DC crossed over well, as they both were quite sociable kids all their lives, but Whitney had not been in the spotlight as much as either of them and even when she was, she generally had one of her parents holding her hand. She'd made her musical debut when she was six – singing the intro and bridge in one of her mother's songs… then she had only sang in church and in her school choir._

_ Besides that, she was somewhat introverted and even when there were cameras and microphones everywhere, most of them were pointed elsewhere and it was easy for her not to develop socially, even with the family that she had. More accurately, it was easy for her not to develop socially ESPECIALLY with the family that she had. Marvel loved attention and was a child star, DC was hyperactive, Majesty was Sam's favorite and the two were like buddies and Wagner was the baby. Whitney and Mercedes were always close, but she backed off a little and understood that Wagner was the baby, sometime after he was born and she pretty much sank into this awkward, unnoticeable middle child position… or that was how it often felt._

_ When she got to her upscale integrated school, she was in for a culture shock and months of scary hormones. She had to inevitably do the uncomfortable thing and ask her mother about certain feelings. "For some reason, I guess I thought you wouldn't become interested in all of that," Mercedes mused. "Your sister began to ask questions as soon as her cycle came about." Mercedes explained to her daughter the natural changes in a young lady's body and how they affected her when she was attracted to someone or stimulated. She explained that many times teenagers felt pressured to behave sexually, and stressed, "Never let anyone pressure you to do anything with your body that you are not comfortable with; but also – when you make a decision to do something with your body, be sure that's what you really want to do. After you lose that, you can never get it back and it does change you even more. It makes you more likely to want more and more likely to give more. With your sense of values, I think that might be hard for you, but ultimately, I would just want you to make sure that you're safe and healthy…"_

"_Why wouldn't she be safe or healthy?" Sam asked, as he came into Whitney's room with a box. "Did something happen?"_

_Mercedes smiled softly and said, "Well, Whitney had some questions about boys and her body…"_

_Sam narrowed his eyes so slightly at Mercedes that Whitney missed it, as he cheerfully said, "Well, I guess that Daddy showed up right on time, since that's _my_ area." He handed Whitney her box and said, "Another present came in the mail for you. This one's from your Aunt Stacey." He sat down next to his daughter on her bed and glanced at his wife, "I've got it, Mercy." She lifted her hands and left them to it, pretty much pissed off that Sam acted like after all of these years of a healthy sex life and five children, she still needed him to handle these types of things. Hell, she had already told her pretty much everything, anyway… but leave it to a man to think that he needs to fix things for his little woman. She rolled her eyes and went to have a snack._

"_So… Is there a boy that you're interested in?" Sam wondered._

"_No," she said too quickly._

"_Whit, Daddy doesn't want you to lie to him. If there's a boy, I need to know, so that we can be prepared." Whitney bit her lip and still shook her head. "Alright. So, you say that there's no boy, but whether there is, or is not, you have to know this – it is hard for a teenage boy to treat a girl the way that she ought to be treated. Most teenage boys are selfish and only want girls for one thing – for sex. So, if there is a boy that you like, be careful around him. If there isn't, watch out for the ones that seem to be nice to you. One of your biggest issues with sex is going to be boys trying to get you to have it with them."_

"_And I tell them 'no,' because sex is a mortal sin and fornication is against the will of God," she answered._

"_That's exactly what you tell him. He can argue with you, all he wants, but can he argue with God? And even if he dares to do it, are _you _going to choose some horny boy or God?" Sam asked. "Because, don't get me wrong – you have that choice. But, at what cost do you give yourself over to somebody, especially somebody that probably won't be around any longer than a few weeks, a few months, a few years?" Sam began to talk about the statistics of teen pregnancies and the number of teenagers with STDs. "And do you realize that at this age, if you are pregnant, as a teenager, your body is still considered the property of your mother and I. We decide what will become of you, should you run into such an issue. Your mom will make you have the baby," he told her. "I wouldn't want you to, but she'll speak about how one sin can't fix another. And unborn child is a life that should not be taken away…"_

"_I wouldn't want to kill a baby!" Whitney protested in horror. _

"_And condoms can prevent pregnancy and disease, but what condoms can't do is protect your heart from the guy that you chose to give it to when you let him inside. You'll have to try to bear that burden, for yourself. You're strong enough that I think that you can do it, but I wouldn't want you to have to go through that pain of rejection that a lot of teenagers face because they made the choice to give it up too soon and they gave it to the wrong one," Sam told her. Then, he gave her the statistics of teenagers who fell into depression after losing their virginity, or those who fell into depression after being dumped by a boyfriend or girlfriend, those who committed relationship related suicide, and those who attempted suicide based upon the actions of a lover._

"_There is this deep emotional connection that is truly only meant to be shared between two people who love each other enough to be married," he concluded. "Look at your mom and I – the type of relationship that we have is one that is built upon love and sex for us is a spiritual, emotional, mental connection that neither of us could ever even imagine sharing with someone else. So, if you decide that there is some boy who is worth that, who can do that with you and for you, I hope that you're sure about him."_

"_I guess this is why The Bible tells us to wait until we're married to have sex," she observed._

"_Yes," he told her, "That's why."_

"_But, what if I'm not interested in sex and I'm just confused about how my body is acting when cute boys are around? I just want to know what I can do to help myself not to become like one of those poor girls that you described. I don't want to lose my virtue or choose some boy over God, but sometimes, my body feels like I'll just burn up!"_

"_I used to take ice baths," Sam said, "When I was your age. Studies say that exercise helps and preachers say that prayer does."_

"_What do you say?" Whitney wondered._

"_I say, see what works for you," Sam told her. Then reached for her box and said, "I wonder what your Aunt Stacey got for you. You gonna open it?" He asked._

"_Maybe later. I've got my license, now. I think I'll go buy some ice…" She said and gave him a hug, "Thank you for our talk, Daddy. It was really helpful and informative."_

"_I love you, Lil' Diva," He told her. _

_ So when Whitney realized that her older brothers did not get quite the talk that she and her sister got, she was a little bit upset. It wasn't like she was looking for an excuse to have sex, but her daddy had made her feel like having teenage sex was a downward spiral and no good could come of it. She felt like a terrible young lady for even having the feelings that she did! But, not only had her mother lost her virginity to her father in high school – on a tilt-a-whirl at a carnival, at that!... But, they had a regular sex life (after her mother kind of had to struggle against what she'd always been taught to believe and what she wanted believe from Sam)… so basically, he'd pretty much pressured her mama. Not to mention, when Marvel was conceived, they were even married then. She'd presumed that he was premature._

_ It wasn't in Whitney's personality to confront her father, though she wished that her mother would, because she would love to hear his excuse for telling his boys that he didn't really believe in all of that, because of how difficult it was for males to resist girls, then telling his girls to be careful because teenage boys were dangerous and sex with them was disastrous… She was crying. However mad she was, she couldn't go through with it. She thought, that would teach him. I'll do it with a boy and I'll tell him how hard it was for me to stop myself, and see what he has to say about that! But, she hadn't. She had tried, but quit, thinking about all of the things that her father and mother told her and what she had read and studied about in her own Bible. "I can't," she simply said. That didn't help her reputation, unless being called the "class cocktease" was the reputation that you'd want._

_ Thereonafter, she found herself frequently frustrated with her father and when she would give him attitude, it would bother him, until they came to a point where they only seemed to argue. Eventually, during her college years, she'd exploded on him, wondering why he would do that? Why would he tell her all of those things, if he really didn't believe them? "I'm sorry. I was wrong. I was selfish. A father generally doesn't worry so much about his boys – because they eventually show their manhood and he knows what it was like to be a young man and he trusts them to handle it in the ways that he's taught them. It's harder for us to do that with our daughters. We know how men are and how boys are. We know that you already have so many things that can go against you. You don't need to have your name dragged through the mud, or to wind up stuck with a child that you didn't want or thought you might get help from. You are always going to be my little girl, to me."_

"_Well, while you were so busy protecting me from guys and from a future caused by bad choices, I was beating myself up. Because I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, and why ice baths and exercise and prayer weren't fixing me. I thought that I was a bad person, Daddy, because I was a normal teenager with regular hormones and emotions!"_

_ They had talked it out and claimed to get beyond it, but their relationship was never truly fixed, ever again. They loved each other and either would fight for the other at the drop of the hat, but there would always be some discourse. _

"Never again, Oh Lord… I will never let any of the stuff that happened to us in the past get to me, again if you'll just…" She saw the doctor coming and she stood up and rushed to him.

"Miss Evans, your father is suffering from congestive heart failure," the doctor told her and her tears immediately fell.

"That's not something that you can fix," she commented.

"It is something that has treatment, which could result in a recovery," the doctor told her, "But, with someone your father's age, he has less of a chance than…"

"Do everything that you can," Whitney ordered. "I will understand that if it's his time, then we just have to say goodbye, but I need you to do every single thing that you can to help my father recover, if that's possible. The cost doesn't matter." The doctor nodded and made some notes on his clipboard. "Can I see him?"

"He's resting," the doctor told her, "but he is stable, so I'll take you to him."


	15. Finely Aged

**Finely Aged**

Majesty pulled into the parking lot of the hospital, having almost wrecked her car countless times on the way there. She and Wagner had not left Tennessee since they returned for Mercedes' birthday grave visit, along with Whitney. Now, the three of them were going to be at the hospital and as far as she knew, Whitney had also contacted their elder brothers and Sammie, too. She hated to even think that way, but she was surprised that her dad had lasted this long after her mom's death.

She had always been one of his two children that Sam felt completely comfortable with telling his entire feelings to. The other had been Marvel. It wasn't so much that Sam wasn't honest with his other children; he simply did not like to bother others with his issues. He preferred to keep them to himself. She could remember when she and him went beyond that type of dealing.

_ Rushing right into his office, she hadn't even bothered to knock, "Daddio, I've got the final design for the tear-away dress that I need made for my party…" Sam forced a smile, but the redness in his green eye stopped her in her tracks. She hadn't seen him for a few days – but that sometimes could happen when he was in the middle of something. He had stubble growing out amongst his generally well-kept beard and he was incredibly pale. "Dad, what's wrong? Are you sick?" She asked and went over to his desk to feel his face._

"_I'm not sick. How about you show me that design?" He said and reached for the sketch pad in her hands. He opened it and looked at the drawing… it was a wonderful piece of work and he would expect no less from his daughter, but then – he looked at the self portrait and even though he knew it was supposed to be Majesty, she looked so much like her mother (aside from their almost opposite complexions), he started crying, silently._

"_Dad… what's wrong?" She asked. _

_He shook his head and told her, "I haven't been home all week. I miss you guys. I miss your mom."_

"_What do you mean you haven't been home all week? I figured that I've just not seen you – you actually haven't been there?" She asked and sat on top of his desk._

"_Mercy and I had a fight and she asked me not to come back," Sam admitted, and new tears fell, though he wasn't whimpering or sobbing. "I know that she's just angry, but we've never had a fight like this before. She's never made me leave and I don't know how to take that."_

"_What did you fight about?" Majesty asked. _

"_I'd prefer not to say. We're not big on letting you kids in on our relationship drama," he said and wiped his face. "I said some things that I shouldn't have and really hurt her feelings. She was confronting me about something that angered me and I went too far and lashed out at her." _

_ Actually, it began with Whitney's outburst. When they talked things out and Whitney had gone on her way, Mercedes came back to Sam and questioned him about it. She was offended and angry that he had come behind her talk with Whitney and instead of reassuring her, he'd frightened her and made her feel bad. Sam already knew that from having just had the argument with Whitney, and he pretty much told her that. Then, the argument became that Sam **always **treated Whitney and Majesty differently than he did his sons. That much was obvious, as well. Boys are different from girls and to treat them the same would be unfair. Boys were tougher and not as emotional… Then she called him sexist! _

_ That was ridiculous to him! He had always seen her as an equal, they made decisions together and he even lifted her up higher than what he thought of himself as an individual, so to be called something so terrible hurt his feelings and pissed him off at the same time. But, then he made the worse comment that he had probably ever made about her. "Maybe I wouldn't be sexist if the woman that I spend all of my time with didn't use sex as her barter." Mercedes entire face blazed up – eyes budged, nostrils flared, mouth spread wide open, "Did you just call me a HOE?" At that question, he immediately felt bad. _

_He had just said that, but, "I'm just saying that anytime you want me to do something or you want me to agree with you, you bribe me with kisses and if that fails, sex."_

"_I have never…"_

"_When you released your first album, remember how it was about wanting to sing and inspire people and by the third, you were a sex symbol and milked that every step of the way?" She slapped him. He reached out for her, "Mercy, I'm sorry… I didn't mean that."_

"_Yes, you did, and you've obviously had that inside of you for years. Now, it's out." She couldn't keep tears from falling. "I enjoy having sex with my soul mate, and never once had it ever crossed my mind to use it as a weapon or to use my body as bargaining chips. And as far as my albums go… I felt more confident and sexier by the time I became a sex symbol and yes, I did cater to that new part of myself, because at the time, that's exactly who I was. I've always remained true to who I am, with every album and with all of my career decisions." She threw her hands out to cover the space around her body and said, "But this is just another instance of your hypocrisy. I seem to remember not only you stripping to make ends meet in high school, but you playing a guitar in a sleazy cage girl club when we first lived together. But because I didn't mind putting on sexy outfits in videos and on tour and making a few risky songs, I'm on the chopping block?"_

_She began to leave the room as she told him, "I think that you need to leave and I really don't care if you come back, right now."_

"_You don't mean that," He said._

"_Between the two of us, Sam… I think I have the better record for meaning what I say."_

_ How the hell could he have let any of that come out of his mouth? Mercedes was gorgeous and her sexiness wasn't cheap or slutty… it was sexy. He did think that she used it against him more than she would like to admit, but never in a manipulative or malicious way and for him to attack her like that was not him and not right. He had been sending her apology presents the entire week, leaving her emails, voicemails and writing her letters to try to beg her to forgive him for being insensitive and hurtful. _

_ He'd felt badly enough that his precious lil' diva was upset with him then he allowed his upset over that prompt him to take out his dissatisfaction in himself on the one person who never said a malicious thing to him. That was what he hated the most about this – that he had hurt her, when he promised never to. Now, he wouldn't tell his other little lady the whole truth. Hell, if she became mad at him, too… "You know how Mom is," Majesty told him, "The more you bother her about this, the more stubborn she'll be. I hope you've given her the space that she needs."_

"_She doesn't need space, right now. We've come too far for that. She needs to know that no matter what I said or did that I can't live a day without her and I won't rest until she tells me that she knows that."_

"_Dad, I can't imagine that you could ever say or do anything that would make her doubt that for one second," Majesty told him. "You wanna go to the arcade? I'll give you a run for your money. I've been practicing on the vintage ones in your game room. I'm challenging you to Street Fighter." She slammed her book down on the desk and nudged him, "Let's get to it, Daddio." They went into Sam's personal game room, full of vintage arcade games, from Sam's childhood and some from his teenage years to play against each other._

_After a while, Mercedes' voice sang into the room, "Hope I'm not interrupting!"_

_Sam abandoned the game and Majesty watched her father rush over to his wife and collect her into a tight hug, repeating a mantra of "I'm so sorry. I love you." He buried his face in her hair and sniffled. Mercedes watched Majesty, watching them and wondered if she knew what had happened. _

"_Sam…" Mercedes began. _

_Majesty announced, loudly, "Well look at that! Game over, I'll see you two at home!" She rushed out of the room and shut the door behind her. She could hear them begin to try to both apologize. Mercedes was crying too, then they were kissing, and Majesty could hear that it was quickly about to be more to it… Her theory was confirmed when she heard her mother moaning as the door was locked. Yeah… it was time to get out of dodge._

_ But after that, she found that if she asked Sam about something, he didn't mind talking to her and he usually was pretty straight up with her, even about her own personal stuff. He became much cooler than she originally even thought. They became cooler with each other than ever. _

Majesty got out of the car and hurriedly marched to the hospital. Like her mother, she had never really been a small framed person, but where her mother got more in shape and healthier over time (while maintaining a still larger frame, of course), Majesty got bigger and not as healthy as she would have liked, over time. She barely ever hastened anywhere, but she was hot-stepping up the handicap ramp and nearly jogged in through the automatic doors. "Majesty!" She heard and turned to see Wagner, waving her over. She went to meet with him. He looked fine, so she thought maybe Dad's fine. When she reached him, he held the door open for her and she saw Whitney, hovering over her father and either crying, praying or both. "He hasn't woken yet, but he's been talking," Wagner said.

Majesty nodded her head and asked, "How long does he have?"

Whitney's head snapped up and she glared at her sister, "We don't know! The doctor is going to try to help him. He might live."

"You texted me that it's congestive heart failure. Dad's old and we don't even know what stage he's in…" Majesty tried to explain, but seeing that Whitney was only becoming more upset, she changed her point to, "It'll be good for Dad to be able to be with Mom again."

Whitney stood up and said, "I guess that it's easy for you to let go of him. You've had him for so long, it makes sense. I _just _started to get things back right with Daddy, and I want him here for as long as the good Lord sees fit."

"I do too, Whitney. But, you can't get mad at me that Dad and I got along. You had a chance to have a relationship with him… You _chose _to keep yourself alienated. Do you know how hard it was to be considered one of Dad's closest friends, but to have to quite regularly hear him whine about how close you two were when you were little and how much you hated him…"

"I have never hated Daddy!" Whitney snapped.

"Wagner comes to see you all the time. None of them come to see me…" They heard Sam mumble. "Might as well go to Tennessee…"

_ Mercedes' fiftieth birthday was to be a grand celebration. Sam paid for all of their friends to fly out to meet them, and they would spend the weekend on his yacht. Rachel overdosed at forty-five and ended her lengthy battle with cocaine, and Mercedes' fiftieth birthday would be the first time that the gang was getting together again since their friend's funeral._

_Quinn was widowed, when her husband was shot by an angry woman who blamed him for her husband's murderer being freed. It took Quinn a while to get back into the swing of thing, but she had great relationships with the two of her children from her marriage. Though she and Beth were not very close after she began having other children, they became closer again after Quinn got married a second time, this time to Puck. By that time, Puck had become a real deal motivational speaker and led inspirational conventions._

_Mike owned his own dance company, but also did projects with highly acclaimed dance schools in his free time. Tina had retired from crew work on Broadway, in favor of spending more time with Mike and having children (a little bit later than her friends began, but in perfect time for her to be able to say that she had a successful and fulfilling career and chose to give it up to be a mother and housewife whole she supported her husband in his still flourishing career… and she did not regret any of it._

_ Blaine and Kurt always made time to come to ANY Jones-Evans event and needed the refreshing break after being bombarded with newfound madness when Blaine returned to the stage for a regular Las Vegas gig a couple of years before. It was the first time that Blaine Anderson had performed on a stage since he was thirty five. The twelve year break was spent teaching different performance arts classes at NYADA, after having been a stage performer for fifteen years. Kurt still enjoyed Broadway and show tunes, but was proud to be the husband of a star, and loved his own career in fashion and interior design. _

_ Artie made many independent movies, and only really had one blockbuster that Sam's name was attached to as Executive Producer, though Sam pretty much allotted Artie all of the artistic freedom, but most people didn't really pick up on the genius of Artie, so he was an underrated director who taught courses for the film studies. He settled in Ohio and after getting back in touch with Brittany at the Class of 2012 Reunion, got into the first serious relationship that he'd had in years and went on to work as the Production Supervisor of Brittany S. Pierce's Best Show Ever, Britt's most current reality series, and Brottnay had moved on to hosting one of those Late Night shows, as well._

_Santana transferred to one of the branches of her advertising firm in California shortly after the reunion, with a higher position and better pay, which made it possible for her to reconnect with Mercedes, Sam and Puck, but it also helped her to get to know Unique… even though they had a tiff here and there, at first. But, when the two began spending more time together, they connected on several different levels. Santana had been with guys before, and since her break up with Brittany with several women, but she was a bit confused when she first began her relationship with Unique. Unique had to teach her a lot about gender identity, because there simply were things about transgender people and those who have already gone through the change that even gays and lesbians did not know._

_ Joe and his wife made plans to come out in advance, so that they wouldn't be in the midst of any missions or ministry events that would require their time. Joe had married a woman who graduated from Crawford Country Day, the sister school of Dalton. She had gone to college to get a degree in sociology, then joined the Peace Corps and met Joe while they were both in the same place working under separate missions, but with similar goals._

_Sugar had been married a number of times and pretty much made a hobby out of it. She never became famous for doing anything, but she remained rich and always built upon her financial status with her husbands. At the time, she was unwed and did not have a date, but decided that she wouldn't need one just as long as Sam was sure to hire some young, physically fit and attractive males to work on the yacht for the weekend. If he couldn't she offered to bring along her own, but Sam promised to take care of her._

_ Mercedes had not been extremely close with David Karofsky and Sebastian Smythe, but had connected with the couple and become fond of them during an effort that she and Sam helped organize for Christian love extending to gay equality, and since then – she and the fellows had been on buddy terms, so Sam invited them along, as well. Dave had a yacht of his own, so this wouldn't be so much magical for him as it would be a good chance to celebrate a friend who he was fortunate to have befriended, even if they weren't the closest._

_ Sam had to admit that he had not really kept in touch with Rory and Mercedes and the boy were never really that close. When they were around each other, it was in the old days when Rory was being dangled around by Sugar. They sent him an invite, but he declined and wished Mercedes a happy birthday and everyone else a great weekend._

_ And have a great weekend, they did. Mercedes was spoiled with lavish, expensive gifts, along with sweet and sentimental ones. At fifty, Sam had a significant amount of gray in his hair and he'd been sporting the facial hair since his mid thirties, but he now wore his beard a little more full than he had in the past and it was silvering, too. Plus, he now wore glasses and wasn't as thin as he once was, but still muscular and hot. He remained Mercy's favorite gift, yet and she couldn't thank him enough for organizing all of this. But, she did thank him, over and over, and over…_

_ She was worried that their friends might hear them, but Sam assured her that from where their room was, no one was able to hear a thing and proceeded to give her one of the greatest birthdays that she had ever had. Fantastically amazing sex, the company of some of her closest friends – who had been there before and after her rise, and would be around if ever she were to fall, and her husband. She stared at him with loving eyes as he cracked up their company with his impressions. Yes, that man was still doing impressions, but he had gotten even better with time and had expanded his catalog._

"_Mercy and I are going to be moving to Tennessee, soon," he told his friends. "We decided to tell you all, even before we tell the kids." _

"_Tennessee?" Kurt repeated._

_Mercedes said, "I told you that's where Sam and I would eventually settle," _

"_Yes, but why would you be settling at fifty? Mercedes… Divas never grow old. You have years of achievements ahead of you," Kurt said._

_Mercedes shrugged and said, "I'm not growing any younger either, and I would like to see some of that new blood come in and give me a tribute at awards ceremonies. There's nothing wrong with just relaxing and enjoying the rest of life. All of our children are grown," she said. "They have their own lives and I remember how hard it was for Sam and I to see our parents when we were building our lives, so I understand. But, it just feels like the right time for us to just be still for a little while."_

_Puck shook his head and said, "You're giving up making movies and printing comic books?"_

"_No. I'll still be working all of the time, just from Tennessee and if I have any major movie projects to work on, I'll jet back and forth, or we'll spend a little time in Cali until I get done," he said with a shrug._

_Tina clapped her hands together once and said, "Well, I think it's great that you two have decided this together. You'll have more time to spend just enjoying each other, which will be even more fulfilling now that you're older. Because, I know you LOVE the kids, but you've had them since shortly after you two were married. This is a great thing for you!"_

_Mercedes smiled and nodded, then bit her lip and said, "I'm just wondering how they're going to respond to it."_

Sam opened his eyes and laughed lightly as he said, "They responded just like you said they would, Mercy." Whitney gasped and shook her hands. Majesty was already rushing to get the doctor. "Marvel was happy for us. DC was happy to be able to run the business while I was away. Whitney came along. Majesty wanted to be happy and said she was happy, but she really wasn't." He laughed.

Wagner whispered, "What's he referring to?"

"Wagner was just upset. That really ate his lunch, huh?" Sam asked. Mercedes was rubbing his face and she kissed him on the forehead. "Where had you been for those days, Mercy? Why didn't you come home?" He wondered. "I missed you. I'm glad you're here. Don't do that again. If you go anywhere, again; you'd better take me with you."

"If I leave again, you are coming with me," his wife promised.

Sam smile gratefully, then suddenly became aware of his surroundings as he held his little lady's hand. "Oh, I guess that I haven't been well, or something. Must've been what happened while Mercy was off and away."

Majesty returned with the doctor and went to try to hold her father's hand, but Whitney stopped her and gestured to the other side. Majesty looked at the hand and saw his thumb moving. He always did like to stroke her mother's hand while he held it.


	16. Loved and Lost

**16. Loved and Lost**

As Sam thought about the fact that he might be dying, if his children's behavior and the doctor's words were any indication, it made him think of the others that he'd lost along the way.

_Family was hard to lose. Mercedes and Sam had been living in Tennessee for about five years when they got the call from Stevie that Dwight was sick. Of course, being as close to his dad as he had always been, Sam rushed to his parents, who had come back to Tennessee, themselves. He and Mercy spent most of their time at the house. A couple of weeks later, Dwight was gone. In another five years, Mary joined him. Marvin and Christina had taken their beloved in-laws' death as hard as Mercedes had. But, she took it even harder when she lost Christina about nine years later. It took Marvin a year to join his wife. By the time Sam and Mercedes were around sixty-five, both of their parents were departed. Then, not three years later, Stevie discovered he had cancer in his pancreas and lived for about four months after being diagnosed. Sam took the death of his little brother harder than any of the others._

_After Finn's death, Rachel began her cycle that would ultimately take her life, as well. But, since then, there were others to be lost. Santana developed breast cancer the same year that Rachel died, but survived it. She had her implants removed and went through treatments, and was perfectly fine. _

_A few years later, in fact – a year after the yacht party (or within the year, Sam was not positive), her breast cancer returned. She pushed Unique away, not wanting anyone around to have to pity her or try to baby her. But, she couldn't keep Brittany away. "I lost Lord Tubbington at an early age. I don't know if all the drug usage wore him down or if it was just his time to go, but I wished that I had spent more time with him. You're the best friend that I'll ever have, and I'll never let you go through something like this, alone." _

_ It was the honest truth, because Brittany put everything on hold for the sake of being sure to be there for Santana, the entire step of the way, especially when it was clear that she was not going to get better. It put a strain on her relationship with Artie, but he never would have asked her to choose – and he was almost sure that if he had, she would have chosen Santana. They would always have a connection that he couldn't get rid of. But, he felt bad for ever having wanted to. With Santana going through what she was going through, it was best for her to have a friend like Brittany, who could care less about anything that interfered with her friendships._

_ Mercedes had come to spend some time with the two of them, too. Sugar visited, only once while Santana was at her sickest, but didn't stay long, because sick people depressed her. Mercedes got Sam to take a photo of the four of them, "The Original Troubletones." Santana had no hair and wore a wrap around her head and Brittany, Mercedes and Sugar leaned towards her, as she forced herself to sit up on her couch. After Sugar left, Mercedes and Brittany took turns, doing shifts of always being around Santana. It was mostly Brittany, but Mercedes would come so that her friend had a moment to do other things, like use the bathroom and fix herself something to eat. She'd wanted to get hired help, but Santana didn't like the idea of some stranger seeing her in this way. Yet, Brittany couldn't leave Santana alone, because she had this fear that if she did, Santana would have a sad, lonely The L Word's Dana cancer death and that she would come back when it was too late._

_ As things turned out, Santana said, "Hey – I want us to sing together," one day. She was so tired that she could barely move, but she loved to sing, once upon a time. She had not been able to make her living singing, as she wanted to, every since Glee club, but she still loved it. She began to sing, "It's time to feel the rush, to push the dangerous. I'm gonna run back to the edge with you – where we could both fall over in love…" She was singing it slower than it actually went and all of the women immediately thought of the time that they won Nationals, as they joined in, singing with their tired friend, "I'm on the edge of glory, and I'm hanging on a moment of truth. Out on the edge of glory, and I'm hanging on a moment with you.  
I'm on the edge. The edge, the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge. I'm on the edge of glory and I'm hanging on a moment with you. I'm on the edge with you…" _

_Both Mercedes and Brittany looked at the soft smile that crossed Santana's lips before she exhaled and wouldn't move again. Mercedes wanted to be strong for Brittany, but Brittany obviously had been prepared for this, all along. She leaned over and kissed Santana on the eyelids, then held her hand. "She's still warm. We can let everyone know, in a little while." Mercedes burst into tears and held Santana's other hand. She wiped her face and shook her head. "It's alright. Lord Tubbington will keep her company, until we see her again." _

Sam sat up in the hospital bed and sighed. His children were all there… just waiting… _waiting for me to die._ It was unnerving. It was hard enough not to think about dying without being here, in this place, with all of them gathered, like this. He didn't understand that they had all been so far away when their mother left. He still didn't even know. "Can I have some ice cream?" He asked. Sammie nodded and left the room. "Y'all don't want to go along with her and get some for yourselves?"

Wagner said, "Yeah, why don't you all go and I'll stay here and annoy him, by myself. I don't think Dad and I have had much time together, lately. I'm sure you guys don't mind if I hang, huh, Mom?" Sam looked next to himself in the bed and sighed, again. Wagner smiled and waved to everyone else. "Bring me and Mom something, too!"

"Looks like I'm dying. I kinda hoped that we'd somehow go at the same time, like Sugar and Rory..." He heard Sam say softly. "I was thinking about what you told me about the day that Santana died. She had the love of her life by her side, even though they weren't together. Then, there was Sugar and Rory…"

_ Rory and Sugar weren't together and had not been, for years. But, the two of them did once say that if in fifty years, neither of them were married that they would take a cruise together. By the time they were 67, Sugar had been married and divorced a number of times and Rory had been married once, but his wife passed a few years prior. The cruise was on Sugar's boat and the particulars of their deaths had been uncertain. They both ended up drowning and it was presumed that one of them must have fallen and the other tried to help, when neither was able to reach the boat again. It was indeed sad, even though everyone was slightly glad that they had not each died alone._

"And don't forget Brittany and Artie," Mercedes told him.

"Yeah, but Brittany and Artie didn't die together. She died, then he died, a little while later," Sam said. "I don't hope that you die, Mercy – but I hope that I don't have to wait for you too long, in Heaven."

"I'm sure you won't, Dad," Wagner said. "You nor Mom would ever survive for much longer without the other. I'm sure that the two of you will be reunited quicker than Artie and Brittany." He smiled at them and leaned back, shutting his eyes.

"See how they butt in?" Sam whispered to Mercedes.

_Seventy year old Brittany developed breast cancer, as well. She was one of those people who took the disease and lived with it, even on terribly bad days – she was happy and free. When she was in obvious pain, she didn't try to fake, but she was happy to have lived a full life. And the things that she had not yet accomplished, she and Artie took her last few months of life doing. She had some ridiculous and some virtually impossible things on her bucket list, but the seventy year old went hang gliding, water skiing, bungee jumping… "What's the worst that could happen? I'll accidentally die sooner and miss out on completing my list?" She asked her friends when they tried to object._

_ Mike spoke up, "Brittany's right. She's not giving up to the cancer, but why let it rob her of some things that she's always wanted to do, but never got around to doing?"_

"_Do you wanna come with me, Mike? Artie can't do some of the stuff because of his legs," she suggested._

"_No. I mean, more power to you; but, I've never wanted to be a daredevil." _

_Brittany smiled, her teeth beaming as brightly as her completely bald shaven head as she said, "Are you sure? Artie's filming everything we do to make an inspirational documentary on how old age and disease don't mean that life is over." _

_Mike rubbed a hand on his friend's head and kissed her forehead, "You'll be an inspiration to a lot of people, but I can't do that with you."_

"_I understand," she said… Artie had used that little exchange as the very first thing on the screen of the documentary. Then, he showed the words: Best. Bucket List. Ever: The Last Days of Miss Brittany S. Pierce. When the scene came back, she was saying, "I never really thought of myself as anything that anyone else really thought or me. I've pretty much always been a unicorn." Then, the film really started. _

_At the end, she was sitting in that same room that she was at the start of the documentary. "I'm honestly not as in shape as I used to be, I guess because of the cancer. Now, it's painful to do common, everyday things, but even though real life hurts a whole lot; I've found out that I love happy endings more in real life than on television. On television, it gets confusing, because somebody might have made the happy ending up. In real life, you know the happy ending is real, because you see it with your own eyes and you feel it. I always knew that I would have a happy ending, and I got a chance to do all the things that I ever wanted to do. So, if you have some stuff that you really want to do, you don't have to let anything stop you. I didn't. Now, I can die all happy… have my happy ending and enjoy it." She smiled and said, "I am Brittany S. Pierce, star, friend, unicorn." She held up a glittery pink sign that read: The End._

_ She died a few weeks later, in a lot of pain and not even able to move. She'd had treatments, medication, both breasts removed, and still it kept spreading, until the end. Her lungs, and heart were both too weak to do much of anything by the time she wished the world farewell. Artie was extremely sad, but she assured him, "This is good, Artie. I'm gonna go plan the party and by the time you get there, Lord Tubbington, Santana and I will have everything all set up. Plus, you'll be able to walk in and your legs will never get tired. It's gonna be awesome," She told him and rested on his chest, in his wheelchair, whimpering in pain, here and there, but refusing to lie down in the bed. "When Santana died, we were singing. It was really awesome. But, I don't want to sing. I want to dance."_

"_You can't. You're too weak," he told her._

"_I know, but you aren't. If I stay in the chair, it'll be like we're dancing together, one last time. Consider it one last final entry on my bucket list." Brittany looked up at him, with her eyes, still glimmering and kissed him on the nose. She put her head on his shoulder and let him give her a chair dance that lulled her to sleep, forever._

_ Artie told the story to Sam as he talked to him about the documentary that he worked on for Brittany. She would never see the finished product and that made him sad, but he wanted to be sure that this thing was given the attention that his work had not received in the past – for Brittany's memory. Sam helped him with that, making sure that a reputable company took the work in, with Quinn seeing to it that Artie was allowed to keep the artistic vision that would do Brittany the most justice._

Sam sighed and thought about Artie dying in his sleep a few short months after the documentary was released. Artie had been sick for nearly a year, having problems with his kidneys and he had not told anyone, because he had not wanted it to interfere with the sickness that Brittany was living through with her bucket list, or to distract him from his work on her documentary… Mercedes remembered thinking, _God; that is some deep loving. _Artie suffered in silence, to make sure that his woman shined in her last days. That sounded like something that Sam would do, easily. She always hoped that she went first, but they had already decided that they weren't going to discuss that kind of stuff. They avoided it more and more as their friends began dying.

_ Of course, of their friends, the hardest death for them had been Kurt's. It was kind of this unspoken thing that "Samcedes" and "Klaine" were like a couple married to a couple… or at least in a long distance relationship. It could have been because of Andrew, or it could have been because Kurt and Mercedes were "soul sisters," but the two families had always been extremely close, no matter how far apart they lived, and Sam and Mercedes' kids regarded Blaine and Kurt as honorary parents. They even often called them Dads… not Uncle Kurt and Uncle Blaine. They had even renewed their vows together, on Kurt and Blaine's 55th and Sam and Mercedes 50th (which technically was their 48th, but Kurt liked the poetry of 50 and 55 better) year of marriage…_

_ Kurt and Mercedes had walked in, each one on an arm of the son whose very blood tied the two couples together, to meet the two handsome old gentlemen who waited for them at the altar, happy to dedicate themselves all over to the loves of their lives. That had been after Sugar and Rory were gone, but before Brittany was. Unique was no longer around. No one had kept in touch with her after Santana's funeral. Kurt and Mercedes got closer and closer with time, and when Kurt left, a part of her and Sam died with him._

_ Kurt had gotten sick – which really didn't happen very often, throughout life. He and Blaine took such obsessive care of themselves and each other that it was nearly unheard of for either of them to actually get seriously ill. But, Kurt got seriously ill and kept getting worse. All of their children thought that it would pass, but Mercedes was worried enough that she and Sam left Tennessee to go to Law Vegas, where Kurt and Blaine were still living, since their move some years earlier. Blaine still sometimes made appearances on stage. Kurt had not worked in years, but enjoyed a slew of hobbies, including traveling. He and Blaine had been on one of their trips when he initially took ill._

_ By the time that they got home and Kurt just seemed to do worse, Blaine was freaking out when he called his friends. But, when Mercedes saw Kurt, for herself, she urged him to see a doctor. Blaine had been trying, but Kurt presumed that Blaine was just being a worrier. When he went to see a doctor, they found out that his body had been confused by the sickness and when trying to fight it off, instead – was fighting healthy cells. His body was accidentally attacking itself and the damage was irreversible. It was time to call all of the Anderson and Evans children, to let them know. After that, it was time to let all surviving friends know._

_ Majesty, Wagner, Andrew and Winter were able to make it, as far as the children. Marvel was sad that he was out of the country, at the time. DC was in the middle of something, and Whitney couldn't make the trip, either, because of work. He and Blaine's adopted son, Petey came a little late, but eventually was there. Of the McKinley bunch, so many of them had passed that besides Sam and Mercedes, only Puck and Quinn and Mike and Tina were left and they all came, quickly. _

_Blaine was a sobbing mess on most days, making Kurt say, "Oh, will someone please get him tissues? Make sure it's scented ones with lotion." The truth was that the doctor told them that this process might be slow and long and that eventually, Kurt may be put on life support. "Ridiculous! Pull the plug," Kurt said, from the moment it was mentioned. "The money that you would spend on keeping an empty shell alive can easily go into my fabulous funeral." That simply made Blaine burst into a new round of tears. "Cedes," Kurt whispered, "I don't think he'll have the strength to handle it, so make sure that the arrangements are on point."_

_She nodded, as she wrapped her arms around Blaine and held him, from behind. Winter Rose had brought Kurt's dream funeral scrapbook with her from the house and he opened it, showing her and Mercedes different things. "You know, when I last updated this, I changed the floral arrangements. Winnie, get Dad a pen, will you, Princess?" He began to make notes, as excited about it as he had been about planning weddings. Mercedes saw it as a defense mechanism. It really hurt him to know that he would have to leave Blaine behind and that Blaine would have to watch him get worse, all the time until he faded away. "Rachel modeled her entire funeral after Barbra's of course. But, I don't plan on modeling an entire funeral after anyone else's at all… Make sure this is the EXACT material that they line my coffin with… Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure if I want caged birds. Free the warblers at the start of the service…"_

_When those waiting for it to happen became fewer, as their friends and family got more and more discouraged and saddened by Kurt's failing faculties, Mercedes, Sam and Blaine hardly ever left. When Kurt was gone, they cried together, holding each other. Sam and Mercedes stayed with Blaine as Mercedes and Winter made all of Kurt's arrangements. Marvel, DC, Wagner, Andrew, Petey, Sam, Puck and Mike were pallbearers, carrying Kurt's coffin on a decorative litter, and placed it into not a hearse, but a ballroom carriage, pulled by six white horses in fairytale garments and jewels. Sebastian and David rode with Blaine, Mercedes, Sam, Quinn, Puck, Mike and Tina, in the first family carriage. The kids rode in the next and the friends they made along the way who would be riding to the gravesite were in white stretch limousines. _

_Mercedes cried for days as she set up the dedication piece on her display. Kurt had helped her with all of the other tributes… now he was gone. "Sam… If I happen to die before you, I don't want a big showy display, here. Just…Frame the most recent photo that you have of me and set it next to Kurt's photo, in the center of his shelf."_

"_I thought we don't talk about that," he said._

_She nodded and rubbed her nose against his, "I'm done talking about it."_

Sam was sniffling. Wagner looked at him, "Dad, you alright? Do you need something?"

"I don't want to leave your mother like Kurt had to leave Blaine and I don't want her to have to go through years without me, like Blaine is doing." Wagner got up to give his father a tight hug. "Take care of her, Wagner. Don't let her be lonely."

"Dad, I _promise you, PROMISE YOU, _Mom will never be lonely, again," Wagner promised, now crying really hard tears, himself.

_ Wagner was seated on a swing when Mercedes came to find him, "Hey – you haven't said hardly a word to anybody since you got off of the plane." _

"_I feel bad," he answered honestly. "Mawmaw Mary and PawPaw Dwight knew they would be in love forever when they were twelve. Gma Christina and Gpa Marvin knew they would be in love forver when they were fifteen and you and Dad knew when you were seventeen and eighteen. I've watched all of you and I've learned what true love is and now, I'm thirty and battling with the woman that I thought I was going to love forever to see my own kid. She wouldn't even let me bring my boy to his great grandfather's celebration," he sniffled. "I have no idea what I did to make her so upset with me, Ma."_

_Mercedes sat on the swing next to him and said, "You're a great father and you're a wonderful man. She's most likely just mad that she hasn't measured up, so she's trying to punish you since it didn't work out."_

"_I don't ever want to fall in love again. This heartache and loneliness is just too much."_

"_Loneliness? Oh, Wagner – you have people who love you for who you are. I for one would love you no matter who you become. With that kind of love, you'll never be lonely again. It may seem hard, but that's why God made memories – for us to keep carrying others who are gone away. I'll think about Mama and Daddy for the rest of my life, but I hold a piece of them here with me and they'll never truly be gone, though I won't see them again, for a while."_

"_Ma, I am never going to be this content about losing you or Dad," he admitted._

"_Why not? You'll see us again! We have the Lord in our hearts, we are heading right for heaven as soon as we part ways with this place," Mercedes commented._

"_I think that it's that even though we know that we'll be with loved ones again in heaven, we also know that the world is an ugly enough place and we just would want to be able to have their beauty and light and warmth with us in it the entire time that we're here. I never want to have to live without your light and Dad's warmth. They have helped to shape my life and always been present." Wagner fell silent and continued to swing._

_It took Mercedes a little while to answer. She wasn't ill or thought she would die soon _(in fact this was a good fourteen years before she passed.) _She eventually found a response for him, "Well, you just take those things and carry them inside of you, even after we're gone. Let that part of us live on through you and I promise, you will never be lonely again." _

The others returned with the ice cream and settled in the room again. Sam had just about had it. The moment the doctor returned, he was going to demand to go home. Hell, if he was going to die, they could at least let him do it in the peace of his comfortable own bed or his trusted lucky chair. The entire building smelled and felt like death. He had gone through enough of it and really wanted to not think of it, any more. Soon, he might be thinking of what if Mercy died? He hated that sometimes recurring dream of him waking up next to her, dead and trying to get her help.

He would dream that she went peacefully, in her sleep, but his entire world fell apart and he tried to self destruct. Her wedding was beautiful and elegant, worthy of a diva, even an aged one, and the services were long, with several people giving dedications and singing songs. Puck and Blaine tried to console him and Quinn lost all of her cool when she reached the coffin. The dream was always frightening, because it seemed so real and it never changed. It was like a memory or maybe a prophecy… well, that certainly couldn't be so, now that his heart was failing him. But, God, did he hate having to face that dream!


	17. Let's Hear It For the Boys

_Sorry that it took me so long to update!_

**Let's Hear For The Boys**

The doctors weren't letting Sam leave, even though the hospital bed was very uncomfortable and he tried to tell them that even in his old age, his lucky chair was the best place for him, and the most comfortable seat that he had ever known. He looked over to see Mercedes sleeping on the cot, leaning against the wall, with her silver hair tied up in a bun. She looked entirely too pretty to have to stay cooped up in the hospital with him. If he didn't have Sammie and Majesty hanging around his every waking second, he certainly would have stolen away with her, at least for a time. For crying out loud, if he was going to die, he could have at least enjoyed his last days! Brittany had.

Sam got up out of the bed to try to go to the bathroom and Sammy quickly rushed to his side to attempt to help him. "No, thank you, Sammie!" He snapped at her and made his way, alone. He didn't realize how long that he had been in there when she knocked on the door to see if everything was alright. "Yes, damn it!" He fussed. When he eventually came out, Sammie, Majesty and Mercy were all staring at him. "Don't look at me that way. I'm fine. I'm a man. I'm a grown man!" He told them. Mercy got up off of the cot and made her way to him, to cup his face and soothe him from his current frustrations. "I can't stand y'all looking at me like I'm some kind of fragile little figurine that's gonna lose a piece of myself if I bump against something!"

His daughter and granddaughter were saying something, but all he heard was his wife, telling him, "We just love you, Sam and we don't want anything to happen to you. We want you to have some peace."

"How the hell am I gonna have any peace by being forced to remain in this place and waste away? When it happened to Kurt, it was the most depressing thing that I've ever seen in my life and I promised myself that I wouldn't let it be that way for me. But, all of the kids have made it impossible for me to keep that promise to myself!"

"They just want what's best for you, Sam," Mercedes attempted.

"Why the hell don't _I _get to decide what's best for me? Is this some kind of punishment? I always thought that I was a cool dad. I was easygoing and I did the parent/friend thing well. Why are they all trying to get back at me? Was I too strict?" he asked. Sammie shook her head and left the room. That was it. He wasn't even listening to her and Auntie Majesty. It was like he couldn't even register that they were still there. He was only communicating with Mercedes, now and while it seemed like she was still a voice of reason… Sammie knew that she was actually in his mind, so how long would her voice be that reasonable when he was clearly losing sense of reason, himself?

They were delighted when the doctors allowed Sam to come home, on restrictions, of course – but home, nonetheless. He wasn't as cranky as he had been when he was in the hospital, though he still seemed like he was not too fond of having them all over the place, nor on the strict schedule and diet and medication rotation that he was forced to keep on.

Sam sat outside, on the patio, staring out into the distance. "I don't know about this place, Mercy. I thought that I wanted to die in Tennesse and all, but now, I kinda just wanna get back to California. Hell, right now, I even think that I'd be alright in Ohio. She was seated next to him, holding his hand and barefoot.

"Oh, you're just saying that because the kids are making you crazy," she sassed.

"They're making me wanna kick their asses, is what they're doing," he corrected his lovely wife.

"Well, they're just caring for you. You complained for years of how they didn't seem to care enough, and how they seemed like everything else in the world was more important to them than to see or spend time with us. Now, they're around and you're complaining about that, too," she fussed.

"Well, if they had been more focused in the past, then I could've enjoyed their company, But, now, I'm fading away and no father wants his kids to see him like this – becoming less and less capable and more and more weaker. No man wants even his wife to see him this weak and I have them and I have you to watch all of this happen to me," he said.

Sammie had taken to hiding a baby monitor in the back of his wheelchair, so that she could catch the conversations (or at least his side of them) that he had with Mercedes. She knew it was a violation of his privacy but it was important to know exactly what was going on with him and he no longer wanted to bother with any of them, out of rage, frustration, shame or a combination of two or all of them.

"Well, it _would _be nice to see the fellas. You and your girls always got together before one of 'em passed along. A nice gathering with Mike, Blaine and Puck might cheer me up, some, but I can't imagine them all being able to make it in. Mike and Tina are doing well. Puck is always seeing to poor Quinn. Blaine's probably off on one of his adventures with his boy…" Sammie began to text her Aunt Whitney. If anyone could handle collecting Sam's old friends for a get-together, it would be her.

The ladies planned it out so that it was Sam's thought that his daughters and granddaughter were taking Mercedes out for a girl's day/night. They would spend it doing the things that they said, but it was the only way to ensure that their "uncles" didn't have to try to pretend that they could see and hear their mom. Whitney tried to go over it with the men that part of Sam's current sickness was the fact that he didn't seem to remember or realize that Mercedes had been gone now for almost a year.

Blaine said, "Well, the notion of losing her was so terrifying to him that I understand why he could be in this situation. Sometimes, it was hard for me to acknowledge that your Uncle Kurt was gone, when I knew full well that I spent weeks at his side while he slipped away from me. I'll be able to keep up with it for Sammy. I wouldn't do anything to hurt him at this time in his life, Poor Guy."

Mike said, "Oh, dear God. That makes me so sad for him. You're sure you'll keep up the storyline that she's not at the house, correct? I just think that it might hurt so much that I might crack if I actually have to see my friend it the position of talking to a woman who is no longer there."

Puck was a little more difficult. "I don't want to try to play any kind of pretend games. It's hard enough for me to have to watch Quinn falling apart and crapping all over herself and things of that sort. Now, you got me saying you want me to look at my best friend and try to act like he isn't completely miserable."

"Uncle Puck," Whitney said, "You were a motivational speaker for a long time. A lot of your job had to do with pretending that things were better than they really are."

"That was a long damned time ago. That was before my wife was in and out of the hospital, living in a home where people have to tend to her every moment of everyday because she can't so much as wipe her own ass. I'm too old and too tired to try to do some stuff like keep pretending with Sam."

"Well, alright, Uncle Puck. Then don't even come to see him. We'll just have it be the three of the guys still living," she said sadly.

"No, no, now… Of course I'll come see the guy. I didn't get a chance to properly say my goodbyes to Finn or Artie and I can't have that going on with Sam. The ladies always got together for the sick ones and whatnot. Maybe it'll give me a nice story to come back and tell Quinnie, when I come home. One thing I do know – she better not leave me while I'm around there, playing pretend with Sammy and the guys."

With that, it was arranged. Sam's sons all intended to be sure to be there, in case the older guys needed help with anything, but they weren't supposed to be bothering their father and his friends during their guys' night in. The ladies were set to be gone for the entire night. Whitney even said that Mercedes would be spending the night with her.

So, when the old fellows arrived, they were directed to the patio, where Sam was in his chair, resting. He was in and out of sleep. Being old and on medication was quite exhausting. Puck was the first one out there, riding in his scooter. He could walk, but it took a lot of energy from him, so he didn't try to walk too much. He rolled himself right outside and yelled out, as loud as he could, "What is this stuff that they're telling me that you're trying to up and die on us, now?" Sam jumped awake and turned to see Puck, looking dazed, for a moment, then his emerald eyes brightly lit up and he smiled. "Yep, it's the Puckman, in the flesh… and in the best scooter on the market. You got one of these things? Beth insisted I get one. I don't even know how to work all of these buttons and dials."

Sam stared at Puck, with squinted eyes, then laughed and said, "Leave it to you to get frustrated with the best scooter that there is because it's too complicated. I enjoy mine. It's one like that, but they had a custom seat made for it, because I'm having to spend so much time in it. I like the buttons, though. Makes me kind of feel like I'm playing a videogame," Sam smiled brightly and reached out to hug Puck.

Puck reached out, too, but frowned and tilted his head, "Oh, I guess because you're the sickly one, that means _I _have to get out of my chair to hug you? Bump that, Dude. We'll just do a handshake or something," Puck joked, but struggled to get up and hug his friend. He smiled and sat back down. "I never thought I'd get this fat," he admitted.

"You aren't so big," Sam said, patting him on the back.

"I used to be a sex shark," Puck said, with his hands rested on the bump of a belly in front of him, "But now – I'm lucky if I could be called a sex maggot. I've got this dream situation. There is a small crew of young women whose job is to give me a full body sponge bath, three times a day! You know how spectacular that's _supposed _to be for a guy like me? I;m supposed to be macking on these young chicks and getting some special Puck Daddy time. Instead, I accidentally fart in the tub and embarrass myself; plus half the time, my soldier won't even stand at attention."

"I don't have a problem with that. Well… they actually still let me take my own baths, even though for a while, they wouldn't. But, my soldier is completely intact. All it takes is one certain kind of look from Mercy and he's ready for battle," Sam bragged.

Puck let out a frustrated grunt and said, "One of our God's is pissed off, Bro."

"We believe in the same God… You just believe that you're waiting on Christ and I believe He's already come…" Sam explained.

"I don't know what I _believe,_" Puck commented, "Aside from whatever Creator it is that designed the two of us is having a laugh at our expense. I'm fatter, yeah, but I still have my urges. What else do I have to go along with it? Erectile dysfunction? What the hell? - I asked the doctor. He says all slow like to me, like I'm having trouble reading and he's helping me to sound it out, 'Your pe-nis does not work right, Mr. Puck-er-man!' That was upsetting enough, but with him talking to me like that, as well. My feelings hurt from that report. My wife is alive, but so sick that even if I wanted to, she couldn't even assist me. Then, even if she could, my pe-nis does not work."

Sam fought off the urge to chuckle, because there was nothing funny about getting old and things not working the same. It was depressing, actually… but the way that Puck was saying things tickled him , a little. Until Puck said, "Then there's you – your penis you say still works just fine, but you can't do nothing with it because you've got a failing heart and your wife's gone," Puck said.

This eerie feeling came over Sam, something like déjà vu, but of something terrible happening. It almost panicked him to hear the words and to have the white hairs on the back of his neck standing up. "Well, she's only gone for a night, Puck. You don't have to make it sound so ominous," Sam suggested. Puck pressed his lips together, biting his tongue. Sam said, "And for the most part, I don't get the urges like I used to. Now, I still have my moments and Mercy and I, well… that's still personal. But, we really just enjoy simple things, these days. Walks around the park. Picking each other flowers. Flying kites with our great grandchildren…" Sam looked at Puck's face and silenced himself. "Why do you look all constipated? I'm sure that we have something for it in the house… or, if it's gas, I know that we have something for it." Puck didn't reply and after several moments of somewhat uncomfortable silence between them, Blaine and Mike came walking outside.

Both of them were walking kind of fast – faster than Sam ever really walked. Blaine's walk was a little more feminine than Mike's but both of them were still quite healthy, though Blaine had begun to hunch over a little, in his back and Mike sometimes had issues with his knees and ankles. Sam's face brightened to see them coming his way. Blaine's curly gray hair was worn in a long ponytail and he had himself a silvery beard to match it. Mike still looked remarkably the same, except slightly wider (just a pinch, though), a tad stiffer (only a smidgen), a few wrinkles in his facial features, and a dab of gray on the sides of his head. Why the hell did he look like a forty something year old? Sam wondered.

Sam nearly jumped out of his chair when he saw Blaine coming up and went to hug him tightly. Blaine had to remind himself not to vocalize _we widowers have to stick together. _Instead, he cheered, "Daddy #3!" Which, to Blaine and Kurt's kids, Sam had been. Mike hugged Sam and patted him on the back, before helping him back into his seat.

Puck said, "Hey! I'm supposed to be the best friend and you made me get the hell up to hug you! Both these dudes are clearly in better shape than me."

Blaine gave Puck a hug and repeated, "Clearly," then asked, "Have you been taking care of yourself?"

Puck waved a hand and said, "Quinnie pays a team of folks to do that at the nursing home." Mike gave Puck a hug and a fist bump. "Mike effing Chang! Man, it feels like it's been ages since I saw you, but it must've been yesterday, because you look exactly the goddamned same!"

"He looks AMAZING, doesn't he?" Blaine asked.

"He looks forty-something," Sam commented.

Mike waved a hand at them now and blushed, "You guys quit that. Though, I must say that when Logan and I are places, people ask if we're brothers."

Sam laughed and said, "That must piss him off! It highly offends Majesty when people think that she and Mercy are sisters."

"Mercedes and Kurt were two people whose asses did not believe in aging!" Puck said, shaking his head, fondly with a glimmer in his eyes.

"Oh, Mercy complains about her body, and she's not extremely pleased with the wrinkles, but she does dig the silver tresses and she absolutely loves her diva collection of designer glasses," Sam gushed.

Blaine asked, "Her teeth, though? Are those still the same ones that won the hearts of millions all over the world?"

"Every single one," Sam cheered, happily. Mike and Puck just nodded, awkwardly, with smiles.

Blaine gave Sam a soft smile and said, "I would give anything to be able to see Kurt face to face again. I often wonder if when I see him again, it will be like it was at the end of Six Feet Under, when David Fisher sees the young version of Keith Charles, in all his beautiful glory, right before he dies. I wouldn't want Kurt to meet up with me looking like he did when he passed. I want to see the fabulous Kurt that I feel in love with, wearing one of his adorable fashions and waving over to me. I'll be so happy to see him that I'd run across the distance to meet him."

Puck smiled and nodded, "Since it's pretty much a given that Quinn will be dead before I will, whenever she comes to get me, I hope she's in her cheerios outfit," he joked. When the other guys gave him incredulous looks, he said, "I'm just joking, God! Really, I just want to see her like she was, right before she got sick. She was so adorable. She still dyed her hair blond, like it could fool anyone. Her eyes were still so bright and full of life and that smile. She may not have had all of her own teeth like _some _people, but her smile, reconstructed or whatever was still amazing. I liked her little wrinkles all over her face and the fact that even though she was old and had that old lady skin that used to grow me out, she still was cool enough to rock a swimsuit and sport some granny tan lines." Puck's gaze drifted out into the distance and he told the others, "I've gotta call and check on her." He rolled his chair a little ways away.

Mike smiled sadly at his friends, grateful that his own wife was not only alive but very well; yet also aware of the fact that Mercedes seemed to be perfectly healthy before she simply died in her sleep, one night. That was terrifying. At the same time, he never took any of his time with Tina for granted, especially after their friends began losing spouses. Now, he was the only one around who still had a perfectly healthy living spouse with whom he was still happily married to. Sam sort of had that, too… only… in his head. "So, were we going to play cards or something, or just sit here and enjoy each other's company."

"If I try to play cards, I'll go to sleep," Sam admitted.

Blaine added, "I have never been much of a fan of cards. Oh, we could watch some home movies or something. Everyone knows that Sam and Mercedes Evans have the biggest collection of home movies in the history of every friend that we have."

"Yeah, that should be fine," Sam said. "We'll just wait for Puck to finish checking on Quinn."

After a while, Puck came speeding over on his scooter and commented, "I don't know what kind of plans you all are making, but I hope that they include young naked women."

Blaine raised an eyebrow and told him, "I can assure you that they do not."

Mike laughed and asked, "Puckerman, do you realize that when we were in school, you were all about the older women, but now that you're an old man, you're all about the young women?"

"Of course I realize. There's nothing wrong with my memory. It's my pe-nis that is messed up," Puck retorted.

Sam exploded into chuckles and asked, "Why do you keep enunciating it that way? Pe-nis!" Sam imitated Puck, causing the others to laugh, too. Puck laughed and nodded. Sam then clapped his hands together once and said, "Alright, then – we can go in and start with the movies, or whatever." He began to roll himself towards the house and the others took a deep breath, then followed.

_ They were watching one of Mercedes' tours, during which, towards the end of her performance, she reassembled her old Glee team ladies to help her with a few songs. She smiled, glistening with sweat, wearing one of her luxurious diva gowns, showing off her immaculate legs. "Ladies and gentlemen, the amazing Brittany S. Pierce…" Brittany jazz walked out onto the stage and began to dance, with her shiny bald head. She had a microphone in her hand and began to sing one of Mercedes' songs. Mercedes laughed and clapped her hands at her friend, who was the best damned dancer that the woman knew, personally. "And also the lovely Miss Quinn Puckerman!" Quinn was carried out onto the stage, by two young, hot guys, singing into a microphone, while she was. When she reached the stage, she, Mercedes and Brittany fell into step with some choreography, during which Mercedes announced, "Now, the beautiful Tina Chang!" Tina came out dancing, elegantly, too, and the music slowed down to a slow Mercedes song, which she began to sing on her way to the stage._

_ When all four ladies were on stage, they joined arms and Mercedes announced, "These are my surviving sisters from my high school Glee club. Anyone who's a real fan of mine knows that I met all of my closest friends in Glee. And this is a dedication to those of you who have left the rest of us here…"_

_Brittany held the microphone up to her mouth and began to sing, "How do I say goodbye to what we had? The good times that made us laugh outweigh the bad." There was a presentation (that of course, Sam made) of their friends who were gone and some of their moments with them and the successes of their individual lives, careers, families, and such. _

_Mercedes entered in on, "I thought we'd get to see forever, but forever's gone away!"_

_And all the ladies sang, "It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday."_

_Quinn sang, "I don't know where this road is going to lead to. All I know is where we've been and what we've been through," and she and Mercedes sang, "If we get to see tomorrow, I hope it's worth all the wait."_

_And they all sang, "It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday."_

_Then, Tina, through tears, belted out, "And I'll take with me the memories, to be my sunshine, after the rain!"_

"_It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday."_

_And Mercedes and Tina sang together, "And I'll take with me the memories to be my sunshine after the rain…" and Mercedes KILLED the word "rain," like nobody ever sang one word before in their life! _

"_It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday…"_

_ Mercedes smiled, hugged her friends and then began to dance and sing, "If I was a rich girl, Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na, see I'd have all the money in the world, if I was a wealthy girl…" She said, "This is for you, Sugar," and Quinn began to sing the verse to the song, being joined by the other ladies for the bridge and Mercedes and she sang the chorus once more._

_The song turned into a slower song, and Mercedes announced, "This is for you, Santana," and Brittany began to sing, "I would dial the numbers just to listen to your breath, and I would stand inside my hell and hold the hand of death. You don't know how far I'd go t ease this precious ache. And you don't know how much I'd give, or how much I can take…" Brittany was pointing to the sky as Tina and Quinn joined in singing with her, "Just to reach you. Just to reach you, oh to reach you…" _

_Mercedes came in for the chorus, "Come to my window, crawl inside, wait by the light of the moon. Come to my window, I'll be home soon," and she skipped straight to the part, "I don't care what they think. I don't care what they say! What do they know about this love? Anyway?"_

_Brittany was singing, "Come, come to my window. I'll be home. I'll be home..." and she and Mercedes sang, "I'm coming home!" Then, the music began playing and for Defying Gravity and Mercedes announced, "This is for you, Miss Rachel Berry.." Tina and Mercedes sang the song together, and she hugged all of them and they made their exits._

Blaine was crying and the other guys were a little emotional, too. "I miss Britt," Mike said.

"I miss them all," Sam admitted, but said, softly and somewhat relieved, "But, I'll be seeing them soon."

Blaine said, "Well, I think that we've depressed ourselves enough for one night. Ammarite? We should maybe just listen to some music and talk about our children, grandchildren and things like that."

"Mine are making me want to choke them," Sam said, immediately.

"Mine hardly have the time of day for us," Puck said.

"You know what? You guys are Negative Nancies!" Blaine snapped.

"That's easy for you to say! Your son takes you all over the world with him and you get these top seats and stuff at all these shows because your daughter is not only a famous Broadway star, but her surrogate mother was too, and you were on Broadway and your husband was the top name in fashion," Puck said.

Blaine stared at Puck for a moment and finally answered, "Puck, I assure you that I would trade everything in the world to be able to have Kurt in my life again. I don't care if we lived in a little studio apartment with tacky wallpaper and musty carpet, like we did when we first lived together in New York. I don't care if we lived a cardboard box or a huge paper sack for that matter, if I could just hold him again and feel his warmth wrapped around me from sensation and not memory alone. You have no idea how fortunate you are, and you keep complaining!"

Puck threw both hands up and said, "Whoa, it was all light and innocent. No need to bring out the heavy guns."

Marvel came into the room and checked on them. "Just to let you all know – if you need any of us – DC, Wagner and me are all in the next room, hanging out and searching the web."

"Oooh! We could do that!" Puck said. "They still put all the porno on there for free?"

Marvel raised an eyebrow, opened his mouth, closed it, then said, "Uh… yes… but – I don't know if that's a good idea. Dad has a weak heart." He nodded, satisfied with that answer.

"I wouldn't want to be watching porn with a room full of my guy friends, anyway," Sam said.

"Puck changeth not," Mike commented. The others smiled. Mike asked, "Hey – why don't you young guys come in here with us?"

"Oh, we didn't want to intrude on your guys' night. Dad's kind of sick of us," Marvel said.

_Understatement of the year, _Sam thought.

But, after a while, Sam's sons were in the room with them, listening to the older guys tell stories about high school, about girls and dating and sex and college and marriage and more sex… Marvel said, "I don't think that anybody has ever previously let slip that Mom dated Uncle Puck and I am uncomfortable with possessing that knowledge."

DC said, "Not only did Mom date Uncle Puck, but Dad dated Aunt Quinn and this just gets weirder and weirder, all the time."

Wagner shook his head and said, "A few different choices and we could have been birthed by different parents."

DC shook his head and said, "I can't imagine being blonde. No offense, Wag."

Sam laughed and asked, "Would you three cut it out? That was one of the most superficial relationships that I've ever had in life. The only one worse than that was with Santana."

Marvel shook his head and said, "And I had forgotten about that, already."

DC added, "So, not only did Mom date Uncle Puck and Dad dated Aunt Quinn; but Dad dated Miss Santana and Mom tried to date Uncle Kurt."

Wagner commented, "Our parents were confused as hell as teenagers."

Sam asked, "Why do you think it was so important to us to make sure you guys understood any and everything that you might have to deal with? We learned too much the hard way… Trial and error."

Marvel took a sip of his drink and lifted his glass, "I'm grateful for the parents I had. Not to say anything about any of the others. It's just that when I looked at my parents, suddenly – the concept of God planning things and having some grand design made perfect sense."

Sam smiled at his son and told him, "Heck, Son – when I look at your mother, alone, God's perfect plan makes sense to me."


	18. Those Last Days

_Certain parts of this was so hard to write, but for a change, we've FINALLY come to an end of one of my Samcedes stories. This one was my very first attempt in this fandom and I want to thank everyone who has read, reviewed and simply been around for the duration of this thing and for all of you who have followed me on other works, as well. I love you all and appreciate you. With that being said… Here is the final chapter of Right Before My Eyes._

**Those Last Days**

Sam was hurting. He woke up and he felt pain along his left side… if he was remembering correctly, that was not a good sign. He couldn't remember Mercedes ever coming home, but then he recalled Whitney telling him that she was staying with her for the night… or was that the other night? Nights seemed to be running together. He called out to his wife, as loud as he could. Yet, it was not her who came, immediately. It was Wagner. "Hey, Dad – what's wrong?" He asked, gently, though Sam could tell he was alarmed.

"I'm hurting, where's Mercy?" Sam asked, holding his left arm.

"What hurts? Your arm?" Wagner asked, quickly getting the phone. "How does your heart feel, Dad? Is it bothering you, too?"

"I want my wife!" Sam said. "I want my wife…" He began to repeat it.

"Ok, Dad. Alright…" Wagner said. Sam's hands were shaking, and his vision was getting blurry, but he could have sworn that he saw her entering the room, dressed in all white. That dress looked familiar… He blacked out.

He had no idea that all of his offspring were outside of the door. He had been unconscious for a couple of days and he couldn't seem to make himself talk, but when he looked up and saw Mercy, he opened his mouth and began to speak, "Mercy, where were you?" He asked.

"I've been waiting for you," she said and brushed her fingers across his hand. "Are you about ready to get out of here, Sammy?" She reached out for him and said, "Take my hand." Sam looked into her face. She wasn't wearing her glasses and her silver hair hung around her face and shoulders in relaxed curls. He tried to reach out for her and the door opened, causing his eldest son and eldest daughter to enter and… step right _through_ her. They were talking slowly and trying to ask him something, but he was distracted by the fact that Mercedes had vanished.

"Mercy! Mercy!" He heard himself call out to her, but all they heard was him mumbling the "m" sound.

"He's trying to call Mama," Whitney said and whispered, "Do we keep it up, at this point? The doctor said we'd be lucky if he even came to."

"I don't even think he can hear us, at this point," Marvel said. "Just, hold his hand. He may mistake you for her, but – give him whatever support he needs right now." She sniffled and reached for her father's hand. Sam was still mumbling. She stroked his hand and Marvel touched his face. He appeared to be in pain, but hopefully, they could soothe him, some.

"Mercy?" He heard himself call, and she was right next to him. He looked over at her. "Oh, God – how long? How long have you been gone? Why have I been seeing you? You're… you're dead, aren't you?" Mercedes stroked his face and shushed him. "Mercy…"

"You're very sick, Sam. Your heart has rejected the treatment for your heart condition, plus, you've had a stroke. You're not even able to speak right now. The doctor told them that it's only a matter of time and that it will probably be tonight. There's nothing else that they can do for you."

"Why did I see you? Am I crazy? Have I become the crazy old man?" He asked.

She softly laughed and kissed his forehead, "You missed your wife, like any man would, after loving her so long and losing her so suddenly. But, that is over now. Come with me…" She said.

"I love you," Sam said. Whitney and Marvel both looked at each other. He had said it so clearly and he squeezed both of their hands when he said it… but, then his grip went limp.

"Daddy?" Whitney said. "Daddy?" She repeated and shook his hand gently. But Marvel was watching the machine flat line and he pulled his hand free to call for the doctor, thought he knew that this was it. Sam Evans had finally joined his wife. Marvel let out a relieved sigh before his tears began to fall and as the doctor went into the room and Marvel escorted the distraught Whitney out, all of their siblings knew, as well. They began to collect each other into tearful embraces.

_It was the day before she died… Sam had been feeling bad, but now, he was getting better. She had been waiting on him, hand and foot, tiring herself to the bone in order to nurse her beloved back to health. Now that he was back to normal, he wanted to go for a walk. He wanted to pick her some flowers. He wanted to fly kites and feed ducks with their great-grandson and have picnics. He wanted to do everything that he was blessed enough to still be alive and well enough to do. She just wanted to rest, but it was much more fulfilling to spend all of her time with the love of her life, whom she had been so blessed to grow old with._

_ They did all the things that they loved to do when they were young and full of fervor. Their passion had grown, even though they were physically inferior to their former selves. Kelsey had a carnival going at her grandmother, Stacie's ranch. They had spent most of their morning enjoying fun times with their little munchkin, Avery – with Mercedes fussing at Sam for picking the boy up to put on his shoulders or chasing him around and tickling him. She was worried that he would make himself sick, all over again! They spent some of their afternoon escorting him through the carnival, and after they met up with Adam and Sammie to turn their boy back over to them, the elderly couple enjoyed some alone time at the carnival._

"_I'm likely to get sick to my stomach on a Tilt-a-Whirl these days, but a carnival visit simply wouldn't be complete if we didn't get on it!" She said. But, there they went. It was quite an issue for them to even climb into the thing. Mercedes wore a silky dress with bright colorful flowers on it and when she went to get into the cup, she nearly slipped. Sam caught her and made sure that she got onto the ride, safely, but then she had to try to help to pull him up onto it, too. Her upper body strength was nothing to brag about and with his shakes and his weak bones; it was quite a hassle. "Stuff that we used to be able to do all day now takes all day to do," she said with a laugh when they were both finally seated (and breathless)._

"_I don't care whether I do it all day or it takes all day to do, as long as I can do everything, for all of my days, with you." He replied and rubbed his nose to hers. She smiled brightly and took his hand in hers. "I love you Mercy."_

"_I love you, Sammy," she said back and kissed his cheek._

_ They went home and Sam noticed that she seemed to spend much more time in the bathroom, getting ready for bed, than usual. When she came out, wearing her adorable purple nightgown and her curled up hair wrapped up in a purple and silver scarf, he smiled and commented, "I was starting to worry. Are you feeling alright, Darlin'?"_

"_I guess I must've overdid it today. I'm feeling so tired," she said and gave him a hug. "I won't lie, I don't even feel like going to the kitchen for the juice to take my night vitamins…" She gave him a doe eyes plea and he smirked and her, and tapped her nose with a singular finger._

"_Of course, I've got you, Love." He crept into the kitchen, and brought her the juice back. _

_She took her vitamins, kissed him goodnight and told him, "I'm sure that I'll be sleep by the time you're out of the tub. I love you," she told him._

"_I love you too, Baby," he said. Those had been their last words to each other. They always were their last words to each other. But, that night, as she slept and he got ready for bed, her body got weaker and weaker and by morning, only one of them woke up. _

_ Sam didn't feel right when he woke up. His heart was hurting and his head. He immediately became panicked. He couldn't quite understand what was happening, or how to explain it, but his pain and the panic made him worry that maybe something was wrong with his wife! "Mercy, Baby?" He called. He glanced at the clock. His baby was usually up and at it, by now. He woke up a little later than her, and by the time he woke, she generally had breakfast, juice, vitamins, meds, all set out and ready for him. She usually had already washed up and had her morning exercises and started watching her television programs… "Mercy?" He said again, this time a bit louder and with a more frightened voice as he shook her._

_ He leaned close to her and she felt cool and she wasn't moving. "Well, I know that you aren't dead, because, because you can't be, because that would kill me and you know that I wouldn't be able to handle it and GOD knows that I wouldn't be able to…" He shook her again, more vigorously and fought off the tears trying to come to his eyes. "Nope. Nope… I refuse to believe it. I'm gonna call Sammie, k, Mercy? I'm gonna call our granddaughter and get her to come over and to… and to… do whatever she can do to make you wake up." He nodded his head as he went to the phone. _

_ Mercy wasn't dead. She might look dead, but it was just impossible. The odds that he would outlive her were strongly disadvantaged. Even though he kept telling himself that she was alright, that he simply didn't know how to properly check on her or how to help her, that Sammie would be able to fix this… the moment he heard his granddaughter's voice and started trying to tell her that he couldn't get his wife to wake up, the reality started to tug at his heart. He started to cry. He could still be understood, but he knew that Sammie could hear his tears and that his sobs were not shielded as well as he would like. When Sammie confirmed his fears, he denied it and practically fell apart in front of her and in her arms. Shortly afterwards, he went into some type of shock. He was non-responsive for a time._

_ Blaine, Puck and Quinn came to check on him and spend some time with him, and he tried to play fine, but the pain ate away at him, every moment. As much as he loved all of his friends, if he lost every single one of them and still had her, he could endure. Even had he lost his children and their children – it would break his heart, but his Mercy could see him through. Who was going to see him through this? He hated how selfish he felt, but how could she just leave him? How could she die on him? _

_ They had recently celebrated her! He had even more recently fought to get rid of his own illness so that they could have more time together! The services were wonderful. The children made certain that it was fit for a queen and he appreciated everything, everything but the fact that these were his final moments with her. Looking at her in that fairytale princess glass box, dressed in all white and sparkles, looking like a sleeping angel, but sleep, never to smile at him again – he cracked. _

_ Whatever anyone tried to do to make the situation better did not work. He took the most recent photo that he had of her, selected a frame to try to do it some justice and set it next to Kurt's photo, just as he promised. If anyone else died, they were getting left out, because he never wanted to even glance at that depressing display again, now that his wife was added to it. The photo was so beautiful. She had been perfect, up until the end. But, he could not handle not living without her. When he broke down in the bath, two months later, and he fell and injured himself, he would have wanted to die. He would have wanted that fall to reunite them. In a way, it did, because as far as he knew, she was still with him, and he was not going to let her go. She was going to stay with him, until his dying day._

There were a number of people telling the Evanses how beautiful the ceremony was. It was smaller than Mercedes' had been, but just as heartbreaking. The burial was so painful for Sammie that she could hardly breathe. She listened to Joe speak so fondly of her grandfather and of his relationship with God, just as she had months before when he officiated over Mercedes' ceremony. Joe's words were much more emotional now. Even though he loved Mercedes very much, Sam had been a mentor, big brother type to him in high school and one of his dearest friends over the many decades. Joe resided over many funerals and many of them great friends, but Sam was one of those special ones that won his tears.

As Sam Evans was laid to rest, in a plot right next to his wife, bordered on her side by Marvin and Christina Jones and on his side by Dwight and Mary Evans, Sammie watched with tears in her eyes. Her work with them had ended and while it should have been a huge relief, and she should have been happy that he would no longer be hurting nor sad and they would no longer have to pretend things were fine, her heart was breaking that she would now never see _either of them _again.

Sammie packed away the items into different boxes. She'd gone over the lists that Sam and Mercedes made to separate their items and matched them up with the lists that her aunts, uncles, cousins and nieces and nephews made of things they wanted. She had made sure that everyone got what they were left, first, then that the requests were given out on a first come first serve basis. It was difficult, but Blaine and his son, Andrew had been helping and her husband Adam had joined in the efforts, as well.

Now that both of his great grandparents were gone, she feared that she might have to explain better to Avery the concept of death and her faith in life after death. She determined to do this after the house was cleared out. There were a few items going into museums and the house itself was going to be sold, unlike their first house in LA, which had been left to Wagner (who lived in it, anyway). Whitney insisted that she was going to buy the house, but if Sammie were to be honest, she never wanted to have to step foot in that house again. The memories that she carried out of it were going to be better than many of her last memories inside of it.

One of the last things that she packed up was the bookshelf that was dedicated to those they had lost. She stared at it for a while, before being able to put her finger on what was wrong with it. Her meemaw's photo was missing. She set the empty box next to the shelf and ventured into the bedroom. It was one of her least favorite places in the house, right before the bathroom that she'd found Sam in after he slipped. She spotted the photo on the bed, face up and went to collect it. She looked at the photo and how happy Mercedes had looked, only a few short weeks before her death. She had gone on so peacefully, while her granddad had struggled before crossing over. But, that was all in the past, now. They were gone and they were together and she was going to simply have to get over that and be happy for their sake. Besides, she would see that smiling face again, just as she knew that her grandfather would.

Sammie hugged the photograph to her chest with a hopeful and sad smile and made her way back to the shrine. When it was all packed up and secured with bubble wrap, she set her grandma's photo on the top of the pile, smiling up at her, then opened the brand new frame that she had brought for Sam. She got the photo of him that had been taken at the birthday celebration of Zadyn and she placed it into the frame and set it next to Mercedes' photo. The frames matched, perfectly and even though she might not see them together for a long time, she firmly believed that she would again. In the meantime, their photos would always be right next to each other, as a constant reminder to her of the power of true love and how two hearts that become one were never to be split apart.

Adam came into the practically empty room with Avery on his back and asked, "Ready to quit for the day, Honey?" She started from her daze at the beautiful, departed couple and smiled brightly at her family – at her chance to continue to build upon the legacy that was Sam and Mercedes Evans'.

"Yeah, I am. You know… how Uncle Joe offered you that position to become the pastor over his church? I think that you should do it."

Adam let his son off of his shoulders and met his wife at her box, "Where is this coming from?"

She sighed and said, "I know that we've had this discussion already before, but I haven't supported you nearly as much as I should. If I've learned anything from the time that I spent around my grandparents, it's that when you love someone, you are willing to go through whatever there is to go through, as long as they're there. I want to be there for you. I want to love you the way that they loved each other." She looked into the box at the two elderly smiling photos. "With all of the reminiscing that they did, do you know that there really were never any regrets? I have always wanted to be like them and now that I don't have this obligation, this overwhelming responsibility to look after them anymore, I hope that you're willing to give me a chance to be there for you the way that I should."

Adam smiled and pulled Sammie into a hug, "Samara, you've always been there for me and everyone else. I understood your relationship with your grans, and I've admired you for it. If you really wanna move to Ohio and do this, I would love to. But, I'll love you and love being with you, no matter what or where we are, Honey." She grabbed both of his hands and squeezed them as he pulled her tight. He looked into the box and asked, "Can you imagine us, like that? Happy and in love for the rest of our lives?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I can," she answered and shut the box.

_ Sam reached for Mercedes' hand and followed her. He looked down at himself and noticed that he was wearing all white, too… just like her. Then, he remembered seeing her that day, when he fell out of the bathtub. "Was I supposed to come with you, then?" He wondered._

"_We always come exactly when we're supposed to. You wanted to come then, but it wasn't your time, yet. But, now – it is!" She smiled brightly as she led him towards the light and told him, "And you'll love it!" When they went into the light, he lost her for a moment, but when he saw her again, she was several feet away. He came up closer to her and something had changed. She was no longer the same woman that they laid to rest several months before. The silver hair was now black, the wrinkles now smooth and as she smiled at him, he saw that she looked almost exactly like she did the day that he married her. "Sammy, will you come on? Everybody's waiting!" _

_Sam felt brand new. He looked at his hands and saw that they were youthful again. He felt refreshed and genuinely filled with joy. She shook her head at him, noticing that he was a young, healthy man again, then she simply took off running. Sam broke into a run after her. It had been years since he had been able to run and he relished in just the feel of it. He paused when he reached a large group of people. There was music and laughter, dancing and overall love. She was right, everyone was there. All of his loved ones that he had missed. His parents, his friends, other family and most importantly, her. She reached for his hand again and he took it and let her bring him closer to everyone. "Sam's made it home, everyone!" She announced and they all cheered and began to spread around tokens of affection and gladness. "And don't worry about the ones that we had to leave behind, either. I promise you, we'll see them again, and each and every time, we have a celebration!"_


End file.
